Statement from Gwanda Residents Association on water demonstrations

The Gwanda Residents Association would like to applaud the people of Gwanda who braved all difficulties including even the weather of Monday the 17 of November 2014 to put across their message of disgruntlement on the long standing water crisis that the town has been put under by the impasse between ZINWA and the Municipality of Gwanda.

While some forces outside our spectrum may evaluate the foiled demonstration as failed, as an Association and indeed as residents we today celebrate a milestone achievement that our message was put through and immediately acceded to. Today most areas of the town woke up to floods of water coming through our tapes and some had a comfortable bath after a long period of battling to bath in comfort.

This milestone did not come to the people of Gwanda on a silver plate. It is sad that the very people we put trust of our welfare in had to wait until circumstances and actions forced them to realise the worth of our constitutional right to SAFE, CLEAN AND POTABLE WATER.

A member of the community and a police officer for that matter embarrassingly lost his life taking a bath in a river because there was no water at home to shower with. Couple of women suffered the humiliation of being raped by a thug while on their way to fetch water from a disused mine. Many other avoidable mishaps befell our residents in their pursuit of water while water remained ready at the pump station to be pumped to people for consumption but our service providers chose not to rise above their differences and allowed people to suffer.

We would like to condemn to the highest level without compromise actions and attitudes of both Council and ZINWA in the run up to these unfortunate incidents up to the lobbying of a mass action by the residents. We are still angry and confused on why these parties refused to accede to an urgent call for dialogue by the residents representatives. Now that the worst scenarios have happened we have the justice to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt that had we been listened to maybe, just maybe, all these mishaps would not have befallen our people.

With the kind of attitude that these service providers exhibited to us as the Residents Association, we would by means of this statement like to remind both council and ZINWA that the Residents Association is an integral part of the administration of the town and one which they can not regulate but accept its constitutionality and core exist with it. We strongly believe in the effectiveness of dialogue and shall always be guided accordingly, but the moment we are disregarded we have no fear what so ever to resort to our most powerful tool of confrontation and that we shall always use to claim the rights due to the residents of Gwanda.

We are also very saddened with the police as a regulating authority in as far as public demonstration is concerned. While we may be forced to accept their reasons for refusing to sanction our notice to demonstrate, we note however that saying that the political conditions in the country may not have been conducive for us to carry out the demonstration it is imperative to note that never at any one time will the political environment of any area be declared conducive for a demonstration. It is also imperative to note never in the world will a police force be able to declare that it has enough manpower to handle any eventuality. So we view that then use of the above as reasons not to sanction the demonstration is all but tantamount to a declaration that residents will never be allowed to exercise their right to protest any injustices against them. We however in the same breath would not be fair not to applaud the police for the swift move in bringing ZINWA to book to comply to the provisions of the court order never to disconnect or ration water at any stage. We therefore would like to also remind ZINWA that we shall also remain on guard to see that this court order is adhered to at all times until an alternative order is issued by the High Court or any other court above it.

We would also by means of this statement like to reiterate that as residents we feel and know that the water in Gwanda is very expensive and unaffordable by the generality of the populace of Gwanda. So for council to hope to maximise the collection of water revenue, an urgent compromise needs to be reached by all concerned to consider reducing the price of water in Gwanda to affordable levels. We strongly believe that if water is made affordable residents will with certainty pay considerably to council.

We sincerely hope that in view of the above we may finally have come to a closure to the water problems in Gwanda. Finally we also would want to urge residents to make every effort possible to pay regularly to council for water to be made available to all of us at all times.