Abstract
Water is life, progress in health, nutrition, work, education and environmental protection, international cooperation are all related to availability and sustainable management of water resources and infrastructure. Water infrastructure management both in developed and developing nations has remained a challenge with over 600 million people still highly reliant on unsafe water sources such as springs and unprotected wells. Water is also central to the sustainable development goals in particular SDG 6 that requires everyone to have access to water and sanitation by 2030. Lack of access to safe water and sanitation by billions worldwide leads to needless disease outbreaks, reduced productivity, deaths and poverty. In Harare, Zimbabwe there is a wider disconnect in water infrastructure management, evidently shown by the amount of non-revenue water which is estimated to be over 60% currently. Recently, over 50 people and mainly children perished from cholera and with over 8 000 people reported infected in 2018 only in a period of two months. The research aimed at investigating the importance of effective water infrastructure management in Harare. Many studies previously undertaken mainly focused on financing water infrastructure but this research focused on various mechanisms used to manage water infrastructures in Harare city. The study used a survey research design to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. Primary and secondary sources were used to collect data, including questionnaires, key interviews, key informants, field observations, journals, books, articles and reports. The results indicate that, there is poor water infrastructure management in Harare city due to many challenges such as lack of resources, political interference, poor planning and benchmarking, lack of pro-people centred approaches in water management and poor communication channels and this is evident through poor water quality provided by Harare City Council and diseases outbreaks. The study concludes by suggesting that there is need for good governance in water infrastructure management, integration and coordination of various departments responsible for water infrastructure management and ensuring that enough resources both human and financial are channelled to water infrastructure management.
M.Ing. (Sustainable Urban Planning and Development)