Zimbabwe Water and Sanitation Upgrades: Chinhoyi

Deliverables:

Provision of  temporary water in the form of boreholes and eco-san toilets for sanitation for oen thousand two hundred and seventy sites (1,270) sites on land secured by Homeless Peoples’s Federation in Chinhoyi (250), Cowdray Park (254), Silethemba (100), Mkomba (71), Kariba (50) and Dzivaresekwa (455).

In total, four boreholes have been completed and three are in use. Two hundred and forty-four (244) in Chinhoyi now receive water. 

Community capacity:

Community participation was through savings, of which there are different types in Zimbabwe. It is important to note is that since the introduction of multiple currency system in 2009, the savings have been gradually increasing. Also, the use of the savings has been changing, during the crisis, people were saving mainly for food but now they are saving for development-related activities including water and sanitation. For some of the ecosan toilets, some of the material utilised to construct them is the community's. They are transporting materials at their own cost. That is, they are using their savings to hire a truck.There are examples of people building exclusively from their savings in Bulawayo. 

Federation teams formed in 2010 and are visiting informal communities to discuss options and possibilities and mobilise participation. New town/cities visited include Bindura, Jerera growth point, Nyika growth point, Bikita, Kezi, Lupane, Dete, Shamva, Gokwe, Epworth, Marondera, Lupane, Shamva, and Hauna. New groups in towns/settlements that the Federation is already operating in have also started. At least 20 such groups have started in Epworth, Chinhoyi, Kambuzuma, Bulawayo, Beitbridge, and Mutare. The Federation is now attempting to give new groups sufficient attention while still supporting older groups.  

The community received training on how to maintain boreholes. The community participated in this project by contributing their labour to construct the ecosan toilets. Furthermore, through international and national exchanges, Federations from other African countries as well as members from the India Federation the Zimbabwe Federation gained new insights into how to engage with government. 

Scale:

In the case of Zimbabwe, it is not so much a matter of scale, so much as starting activities that had never been undertaken in the country before. The funds provided an opportunity to restart the projects that had come to a stand still after the crisis period. The crisis also proved to be a point for us to realise that we could not carry on developing in the way that we had been before; we could not carry on with the typical sanitation projects, which lead us to discover and explore the ecosan toilets. 

Impact:

This project was implemented as a pilot and has potential for significant political impact with the government seeing alternative avenues to remedy sanitation problems. Waterless sanitation is a way around water shortages and access problems in the country. In 2012, the City of Harare included a presentation on ecosan toilets in their display at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo. Ecosan technology has sparked national government interest and a number of municipalities have expressed interest in the technology. Ecosan technology and the pilot project has proven attractive in Chinhoyi and Harare as well other areas. This has created a space to discuss minimum sanitation standards with Government, which in turn could have an impact on policy at the national level. Sanitation does not exist as an isolated challenge. 

The government at the National Housing Convention held in Victoria Falls accepted incremental development of infrastructure and superstructures in Zimbabwe's urban areas. The National Director of Housing Forum in Zimbabwe is working on guidelines for incremental development. They have invited the Federation to participate in the formulation of these guidelines. The Federation has come a long way to be recognized as a key player in National Housing Policy formulation. 

SDI Contributions:

SDI contributed US$100,000.00

Resources Leveraged:

The Federation was able to obtain the land for a very low price (5 cents per square metre). The Federation was able to secure technical training elating to the installation and maintenance of boreholes at no charge. The training was conducted by a water engineer.

Furthermore, the Federation is leveraging its new partnerships to lobby government to change its policy to allow incremental infrastructural development to be permitted in Zimbabwe. The lobbying has been taken a step further to involve issues of climate change and how they support incremental development through promoting the use of better and sustainable alternative technologies.