UK gives $1M to Zimbabwe for water treatment

United Kingdom (UK) has provided $1 million to Zimbabwe for the procurement of water treatment chemicals, as several urban areas reel from water shortages.

Through a water and sanitation programme that will directly benefit four million Zimbabweans, the  Department for International Development (DFID)'s cash injection would come in handy to ease fears of water borne diseases such as cholera.

"Britain will provide over $130m in development support for health, water and sanitation, education and improved livelihoods for the ordinary Zimbabwean.

None of this will be more important than the contribution to the prevention of water-borne diseases," said Dave Fish, head of DFID Zimbabwe.

Thousands of people, particularly in Harare, died of cholera in 2008 at the peak of the country's political, economic and social collapse.

A statement by DFID said the programme would meet the water purification needs of 20 local authorities across the country.

A United Nations humanitarian agency is implementing the programme. Apart from the United Kingdom, Australian Aid, the European Union and the UN are also supporting the programme.

DFID's water and sanitation programme, in line with United Nations Millennium Development Goals, aims to deliver clean water to over one million people by 2015, said Fish.