Opinion / Columnist
Water is a human right, It is illegal to disconnect domestic taps: a Petition to the UN
04 Oct 2018 at 20:11hrs | Views
Water is a human right: It is illegal to disconnect domestic tapes: a Petition to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the way to UN
It is just inconceivable to read that water-tapes are being dislocated to those homes that cannot pay the council water rates. Zimbabwe is a country that has 90% unemployment. The "good" government has never asked itself how people survive the chronic problem of unemployment to millions of people: what should be done in order for the citizens to live normal lives. To be civil is being able to work to afford yourself a normal life that provides for your family and be able to pay rent, water & sanitation and electricity rates. For goodness sake WATER is a human right irrespective of whether he/she can afford to pay it or not.
The UN General Assembly defines water as follows: "The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses." It goes on to say; clean drinking water is essential to full enjoyment of life and all other human rights. Our local government is poking fun with our basic rights enshrined in the UN body conventions. This is a government that has no respect to afford its citizens the human basics of healthy living: water as one of them.
If a whole President of Zimbabwe can afford to charter a brand new plane to go and collect the former First Lady from wherever she was in the Far East for treatment, and he cannot afford to mobilize resources to make sure there is water in all cities of the country, then we can as well say in all honesty that we are on our own: we have no government to talk about. There is no government in Zimbabwe but some elite who are all to abuse public money for their own self-aggrandisement. This is not funny in light of the cholera outbreak the country still has to contend with. This low regards of the general populace that not so long ago voted for the very party to come to power is barbaric and stupid. Water is a right that is unquestionable: a right to all citizens and not just the elite few.
The July 2010 resolution 64/292 was passed by all members to recognise the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledge that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights. The resolution calls upon states and international organisations to provide financial resources to assist in capacity building and technology transfer to help those developing countries to provide safe, clean accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all. How did Zimbabwe miss this grand opportunity to develop clean and sanitation to all of us in the nation?
When we hear of cholera outbreak, and at the same breath we are told the councils are closing down water meters because of non-payment, we wonder if they are aware of these basic human rights. This denial to water alone, never mind how clean, is travesty of justice. The wages and salaries they pay themselves is no relevance to the poor service delivery the urban citizens are subjected to. They pay themselves salaries that are no match to most developed countries. We cannot call Zimbabwe a state in modern times by any stretch of our imagination. Zimbabwe is a rouge state. A government that fails or is insensitive to the basic needs of women and children is as good as no government in place; it is just of mockery of it. This government is taking citizens for a ride. There is a clear demarcation between the rulers and those under the thumb of Zanu PF government. The disadvantaged majority are disadvantaged in the true sense of the word.
The former Secretary General, ambassador Ban Ki-moon said "The children who have no clean water to drink, the women who fear their safety, the young people who have no chance to receive a decent education, all have a right to better water and sanitation and we have the responsibility to do better. All people have the right to safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter and basic services, a right to clean water are unquestionable." I wonder still if President Mnangagwa knows this or has he ever bothered to know UN-Millennium Development Goals. What is evident is that Zimbabwe defaulted on many of these goals because they were busy fighting factional wars in the Zanu PF party. We have Sustainable development Goals that equally emphasize the same goals and targets. It is a curse to be born in Zimbabwe, a country that prides in fighting a freedom war but those basic freedoms is denied to the very people they purport to have liberated.
As someone born in this great country Zimbabwe, a country that has been robbed by thugs and criminals in Zanu PF, I am indeed going to make a petition to the UN UNDP and UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: I will rightly quote the 2010 Resolution A/RES/64/292 United Nations General Assembly, July 2010: General Assembly No. 15. The right to water:. We have spoken too long without taking any action to demand our basic needs. This government thinks we are stupid. It is in this loaded context that some practical action must be done to stop this nonsense and downright irresponsibility of a whole government. The President Mnangagwa himself has indeed in many occasions gloated to all of us that: tinibukura, tigobukura, togobukura ( Means we shall talk and talk and talk) That is a whole President gloating to the cowered and frightened and crouched citizens who cannot even demonstrate in the streets for their rights to be heard.
I will make my petition quoting the following to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: the very human right they formulated and was ratified by all members of the assembly ironically including Zimbabwe.
"We citizens are denied of sufficient water supply for our domestic use. We are denied of safe water to drink, water is not accessible to all citizens both in rural and urban areas. The water if supplied is not safe drinking water, I most of the times of dark brown colour, odorous, it is not culturally appropriate and sensitive to gender, lifestyle and privacy requirements. Water is not affordable as 90% of the population is out of employment.
In rural areas millions of people share their domestic water sources together with animals or rely on unprotected water wells that are breeding grounds for pathogens. People lack access to improved water sources in Zimbabwe. Most schools do not have water supply and sanitation a basic requirement for any school guidelines and curriculum. People in slums scattered around the city-peripheries use water from nearby rivers. They use bush toilets in most cases. Most of the water treatment systems in Zimbabwe are not working. This factually means the bursting sewages run to these river sources then about used as water sources, hence the spread of cholera outbreaks in some cities. Our livestock suffer from measles because the water sources are now the sewage outlets that have irreparably burst sending odours of faecal nature in townships. Children in some densely populated suburbs play innocently in deadly sewage overflows in their streets. Our new dispensation is not moved by such human catastrophes and atrocities."
A survey was made not long ago, it was established that because of lack of toilet facilities in some areas in towns, 50% of those who took part in the survey has traces of human faeces in their hands. Most boreholes are contaminated with human faeces in Harare whose people's lives do not mean much for the new dispensation. Copacabana is to be declared a disaster zone. Most surveys were made in Harare; nobody knows how serious it is in other towns and cities. Does this evidence surprise us if the cholera outbreak has already claiming so many lives and there are lives still to be lost because of these medieval diseases that are now unknown in developed countries. Our president is concerned about the former First lady who has to be brought back to attend her mother's funeral than those who are alive battling with basic human requirements such as clean water and sanitation.
Dear citizens let's not be docile, lets act together in this. There is a UN-commission in Harare, please use it to petition on our basic human rights. When we act collectively, it's only then that the government will do something about our rights to water. Petitioning is collecting as many signatures as possible and sends the signatures to the UN Commission in Harare. To demonstrate openly in the streets is to invite more deaths, we have seen it all in August the 1st how the regime indiscriminately shot dead seven people. As long as there are no jobs to talk about, 90% of the population are not in decent employment, then water should be given free to all. If Ed can hire an aeroplane to collect Grace Mugabe in the far off countries, he can also be able to give citizens free water for the same reason that 10% of the population are in formal employment. Each and every one of us can do something to make this government accountable.
It is just inconceivable to read that water-tapes are being dislocated to those homes that cannot pay the council water rates. Zimbabwe is a country that has 90% unemployment. The "good" government has never asked itself how people survive the chronic problem of unemployment to millions of people: what should be done in order for the citizens to live normal lives. To be civil is being able to work to afford yourself a normal life that provides for your family and be able to pay rent, water & sanitation and electricity rates. For goodness sake WATER is a human right irrespective of whether he/she can afford to pay it or not.
The UN General Assembly defines water as follows: "The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses." It goes on to say; clean drinking water is essential to full enjoyment of life and all other human rights. Our local government is poking fun with our basic rights enshrined in the UN body conventions. This is a government that has no respect to afford its citizens the human basics of healthy living: water as one of them.
If a whole President of Zimbabwe can afford to charter a brand new plane to go and collect the former First Lady from wherever she was in the Far East for treatment, and he cannot afford to mobilize resources to make sure there is water in all cities of the country, then we can as well say in all honesty that we are on our own: we have no government to talk about. There is no government in Zimbabwe but some elite who are all to abuse public money for their own self-aggrandisement. This is not funny in light of the cholera outbreak the country still has to contend with. This low regards of the general populace that not so long ago voted for the very party to come to power is barbaric and stupid. Water is a right that is unquestionable: a right to all citizens and not just the elite few.
The July 2010 resolution 64/292 was passed by all members to recognise the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledge that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights. The resolution calls upon states and international organisations to provide financial resources to assist in capacity building and technology transfer to help those developing countries to provide safe, clean accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all. How did Zimbabwe miss this grand opportunity to develop clean and sanitation to all of us in the nation?
When we hear of cholera outbreak, and at the same breath we are told the councils are closing down water meters because of non-payment, we wonder if they are aware of these basic human rights. This denial to water alone, never mind how clean, is travesty of justice. The wages and salaries they pay themselves is no relevance to the poor service delivery the urban citizens are subjected to. They pay themselves salaries that are no match to most developed countries. We cannot call Zimbabwe a state in modern times by any stretch of our imagination. Zimbabwe is a rouge state. A government that fails or is insensitive to the basic needs of women and children is as good as no government in place; it is just of mockery of it. This government is taking citizens for a ride. There is a clear demarcation between the rulers and those under the thumb of Zanu PF government. The disadvantaged majority are disadvantaged in the true sense of the word.
The former Secretary General, ambassador Ban Ki-moon said "The children who have no clean water to drink, the women who fear their safety, the young people who have no chance to receive a decent education, all have a right to better water and sanitation and we have the responsibility to do better. All people have the right to safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter and basic services, a right to clean water are unquestionable." I wonder still if President Mnangagwa knows this or has he ever bothered to know UN-Millennium Development Goals. What is evident is that Zimbabwe defaulted on many of these goals because they were busy fighting factional wars in the Zanu PF party. We have Sustainable development Goals that equally emphasize the same goals and targets. It is a curse to be born in Zimbabwe, a country that prides in fighting a freedom war but those basic freedoms is denied to the very people they purport to have liberated.
As someone born in this great country Zimbabwe, a country that has been robbed by thugs and criminals in Zanu PF, I am indeed going to make a petition to the UN UNDP and UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: I will rightly quote the 2010 Resolution A/RES/64/292 United Nations General Assembly, July 2010: General Assembly No. 15. The right to water:. We have spoken too long without taking any action to demand our basic needs. This government thinks we are stupid. It is in this loaded context that some practical action must be done to stop this nonsense and downright irresponsibility of a whole government. The President Mnangagwa himself has indeed in many occasions gloated to all of us that: tinibukura, tigobukura, togobukura ( Means we shall talk and talk and talk) That is a whole President gloating to the cowered and frightened and crouched citizens who cannot even demonstrate in the streets for their rights to be heard.
I will make my petition quoting the following to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: the very human right they formulated and was ratified by all members of the assembly ironically including Zimbabwe.
"We citizens are denied of sufficient water supply for our domestic use. We are denied of safe water to drink, water is not accessible to all citizens both in rural and urban areas. The water if supplied is not safe drinking water, I most of the times of dark brown colour, odorous, it is not culturally appropriate and sensitive to gender, lifestyle and privacy requirements. Water is not affordable as 90% of the population is out of employment.
In rural areas millions of people share their domestic water sources together with animals or rely on unprotected water wells that are breeding grounds for pathogens. People lack access to improved water sources in Zimbabwe. Most schools do not have water supply and sanitation a basic requirement for any school guidelines and curriculum. People in slums scattered around the city-peripheries use water from nearby rivers. They use bush toilets in most cases. Most of the water treatment systems in Zimbabwe are not working. This factually means the bursting sewages run to these river sources then about used as water sources, hence the spread of cholera outbreaks in some cities. Our livestock suffer from measles because the water sources are now the sewage outlets that have irreparably burst sending odours of faecal nature in townships. Children in some densely populated suburbs play innocently in deadly sewage overflows in their streets. Our new dispensation is not moved by such human catastrophes and atrocities."
A survey was made not long ago, it was established that because of lack of toilet facilities in some areas in towns, 50% of those who took part in the survey has traces of human faeces in their hands. Most boreholes are contaminated with human faeces in Harare whose people's lives do not mean much for the new dispensation. Copacabana is to be declared a disaster zone. Most surveys were made in Harare; nobody knows how serious it is in other towns and cities. Does this evidence surprise us if the cholera outbreak has already claiming so many lives and there are lives still to be lost because of these medieval diseases that are now unknown in developed countries. Our president is concerned about the former First lady who has to be brought back to attend her mother's funeral than those who are alive battling with basic human requirements such as clean water and sanitation.
Dear citizens let's not be docile, lets act together in this. There is a UN-commission in Harare, please use it to petition on our basic human rights. When we act collectively, it's only then that the government will do something about our rights to water. Petitioning is collecting as many signatures as possible and sends the signatures to the UN Commission in Harare. To demonstrate openly in the streets is to invite more deaths, we have seen it all in August the 1st how the regime indiscriminately shot dead seven people. As long as there are no jobs to talk about, 90% of the population are not in decent employment, then water should be given free to all. If Ed can hire an aeroplane to collect Grace Mugabe in the far off countries, he can also be able to give citizens free water for the same reason that 10% of the population are in formal employment. Each and every one of us can do something to make this government accountable.
Source - Nomazulu Thata
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