Zimpapers Logo

Loveness Bepete Chronicle Reporter
BULAWAYO Metropolitan province has the safest drinking water in the country with 98, 9 percent of the population using improved sources of drinking water. The province is followed by another metropolitan province, Harare which has 97, 2 percent of its water sources deemed safe. A survey by ZimStat has revealed that 98, 1 percent of the people in Bulawayo are using piped water compared to 29 percent in Harare.

Water sources considered as improved include piped water, tubewell or boreholes, protected wells, protected spring and rainwater collection while unimproved drinking water sources include unprotected wells, unprotected springs, tanker trucks, cart tanks or drums, surface water and bottled water.

Use of piped water for drinking in Harare is at 29 percent compared to 98,1 percent in Bulawayo. In Harare 68,7 percent of the population use water from a tubewell or boreholes, protected wells, protected spring, rainwater collection or bottled water while in Bulawayo 1,3 percent use such sources of water.

In the predominantly rural provinces, Mashonaland West and Midlands 27,3 percent and 27,7 percent respectively use piped water. At the other end of the scale 13, 5 percent of Masvingo province’s population and 12, 1 percent of those in Mashonaland East use piped water, the survey revealed.

The provinces with highest use of unimproved water sources were Masvingo province with 35, 8 percent, Mashonaland Central province with 34, 1 percent, Mashonaland West province with 31, 4 percent and Matabeleland North province with 30, 9 percent.

ZimStat has also revealed that the percentage of households using improved sources of drinking water increased with the education status of the head of the household and higher socio- economic status.

The proportion ranged from 64, 3 percent for heads of households with no education to 94, 4 percent for those with higher education while it varied from 51,5 percent for the poorest households to 99,1 percent for the richest.