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Building climate resilience in the water shortages

of Harare City.

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1.0 Executive Summary
The Future Resilience for African Cities and Lands (FRACTAL) initiative researched Harare's
decision-making and climate resilience that served as the foundation for this policy brief. These
investigations took place between 2016 and 2018. Examining the types of climate change risks
and vulnerabilities relating to the provision of water services, comprehending the processes and
results of decision-making to mainstream climate change adaptation in cities throughout
Southern Africa, and potential adaptation options in this context are some of the common
issues that the project addressed. The disaster caused by a water shortage has had an impact on
Harare City. The brief provides a context summary of climate change, variability, and water in
Harare to add to the body of knowledge about the city's vulnerability and risks as well as to
guide future, sustainable policy, planning, and governance of the city in these sectors.

The brief offers a series of recommendations for the development of the city that had
experienced a disaster in the water sector, including the dissemination of pertinent climate
information by the research community, ongoing risk and vulnerability assessments, the
establishment of a climate change department/unit within and by the City of Harare, which
should also ensure optimal resource mobilisation for infrastructural development,
institutionalisation and enforcement of regulations, and the promotion of climate change
education. To avoid overlaps, the City of Harare and the Government should both support an
integrated/holistic approach to managing water resources.

1.1 Introduction
A combination of climate changes impacting the frequency and intensity of catastrophic
events may impair the resilience of many cities. Along with other global change causes
including altered land use, pollution, fragmentation of natural systems, and resource
overexploitation, these catastrophic events also include flooding and droughts. Non-climatic
reasons include, among others, urban sprawl brought on by population increase, high water
distributional losses, low billing collection, overstaffing, and insufficient cost recovery. Due
to extensive political interference in service provision and regulation, as well as barriers to
successfully implementing public-private partnerships to meet the cities' rising demand for
energy and water, many cities still lack effective institutional frameworks for building
resilience (Dominguez Torres, 2012; Niang et al., 2014; Satterthwaite et al., 2016; Elmqvist
et al., 2018).

For instance, Zimbabwe is anticipated to experience water constraints by 2025. (Arnell, 2004;
Brown et al., 2012). Additionally, the management of water resources is becoming more
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challenging in the southern African region in particular, which is situated along a semiarid
belt due to increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like droughts
and floods (Chigwada, 2005; Darwall, 2009; Mwendera, 2010; Niang et al., 2014). In this
sense, this study concentrated on the context of climate change and water catastrophes in
Harare to add to the body of knowledge already available about the city's vulnerability and
dangers as well as to guide future sustainable policy, community resilience, and municipal
governance.

1.2 Overview of the Research

The majority of southern Africa is already experiencing warming, high rainfall variability,
and changes to the spatial distribution of water resources, with some places, becoming wetter
while others are becoming drier in the desert to semi-arid regions (Kundzewicz et al, 2010;
Pinto et al., 2015; Maure et al., 2018). The value of the services given by water resources is
predicted to decrease in areas where runoff is anticipated to decline (Arnell, 2004; Niang et
al., 2014). This is a reason for concern, especially given how strongly the region's residents
rely on river ecosystems and drinkable water for their survival and economic growth. These
difficulties are made worse by African cities' following penchant for poor planning,
insufficient infrastructure development, pollution, and unsustainable resource extraction.
Water withdrawals in the region are thought to have climbed by a factor of six over the 20th
century, and as a result, demand for water in most southern African towns already exceeds
availability (Rockstrom and Gordon, 2002; Molden, 2007).

Given that Southern African cities' attempts to implement structural and policy reforms to
promote inclusive decision-making have not addressed issues with providing adequate
services to urban residents, notably in the water sector, this study was timely. The fact that
Harare is already dealing with problems that climate change is projected to make worse and
that there are options to remedy this predicament just makes the situation gloomier.
Additionally, Harare's analysis of climate change and variability has not effectively taken into
account the risks and vulnerabilities related to water resources, including a lack of data on
adaptation in the city, necessitating our understanding of the relevant problems.

Studies of this kind are still in their infancy in Harare, despite studies on the significance of
climate and water being conducted elsewhere, as most study foci have been mostly rural and
remote from the city. An initial step toward adaptation for longer-term climate change and
vulnerability would be enhanced incorporation of data regarding current climate variability
into the city's risk assessments and water-related management. This would also lead to more
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effective decision-making. Given that the city already faces various governance difficulties
unrelated to climate change, it is crucial to understand urban governance to develop a
resilient city. According to a recent study, there may not be a water crisis in African cities,
but rather a problem with water governance that makes water security inequities worse
(Milan, 2016). An imbalance between supply and demand, unplanned settlements, financial
mismanagement, and bad planning are further causes of this water security issue.

1.3 Examination of the Findings

The weather in and around Harare has changed, as have the rainfall patterns. Residents in
Harare accurately recalled previous climatic trends and stated that there had been temperature
rises, decreases in rainfall, and delays in the start of rainy seasons over time. With more than
50% of respondents saying that they have noticed substantial variations in temperature and
rainfall over the past 30 years across all six examined sites, the study shows that views of
historical temperature and rainfall patterns were similar independent of residents' location
(see Figure 1).

The survey also discovered that Harare's population has been growing quickly, placing stress
on the city's water supply. The infrastructure, which was recently upgraded in 2014 to a 58%
production capacity of 670 000 cubic ML of treated water per day, is still insufficient to
service the growing population of close to 4.5 million people in Greater with a water demand
of 1,2 million cubic ML per day for all households and industries. This is true even though
the population has continued to grow. As a result, some places, particularly new suburbs, lack

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a link to drinkable water. Rapid population increase also offers a problem because some
individuals wind up erecting their homes on wetlands, which has resulted in the degradation
of wetlands.

One of the city's natural water filtration systems that has reportedly in the past assisted in
naturally removing impurities and recharging water before it reaches water bodies is
wetlands. Poor upkeep of water treatment systems and equipment has led to poor water
quality. Cholera and typhoid outbreaks are possible as a result of the City Council's failure to
provide water to all households and the rise in sewer burst pipes; this ongoing issue also
contributes to environmental contamination once sewage spills into the environment.

The study emphasises how the national government's decision-making procedures are built
on 5-year stages following each election period, making decision-making dependent on these
periods. Because of this, it seems that there was insufficient long-term planning for water
resources in the city, as discovered by Muchademba and Williams (2017). According to the
report, the city has several significant decision-making issues, including a lack of financial
resources and poor budgeting, a lack of locally developed and harmonised rules, and the
presence of numerous participants in the water sector with ambiguous job descriptions.
According to the study, local governments that are in charge of the water supply in urban
areas are crippled by tight budgets.

Water provision is the responsibility of the relevant ministry, while the organisations
involved are housed under other ministries, such as the council, which is under the ministry
of local government. The study also identifies an inequitable distribution of water as a result
of decisions that were made to inappropriately allocate funds and land, such as the council
continuing to support outdated infrastructure in the face of an expanding city population and
prioritising the renovation of the Morton Jaffray water works, which leaks 60% of the treated
water it treats. Poor planning and budgeting have therefore made the issue worse; for
instance, neither the 2016 budget nor the essential developments for the provision of water
services represent water as a priority.

The survey discovered that a higher percentage of residents indicated a lack of coping
mechanisms for climate change at the household level. They appear to not be using this as a
response tactic but rather as the standard, especially in the new high-density regions of the
city, where they dig wells and drill boreholes to maintain a steady water supply when the
council supply has failed. Furthermore, Harare inhabitants react more to the immediate

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provision of water services than they do to the climate concerns, which to these citizens seem
incidental and remote. The survey does suggest that some people's methods for coping with
water shortages include reusing water and showering with water from buckets.

At the national level, the report helps to explain how Zimbabwe's climate change initiatives
are managed by a climate change management department that was established by
Zimbabwe's former Ministry of Environment, Water, and Climate. To create adaptation plans
that can lessen and minimise the effects of climate change, Zimbabwe also created a climate
policy and the National Climate Change Response Strategy. The strategy provides choices for
sector-specific adaptations, including the water sector. It guarantees that climate change
adaptation is incorporated into many industries. The strategy specifically aims to improve
stakeholder institutions in water resource management for the water sector. It also advocates
for more effective water practises, catchment promotion, and the adoption of analytics and
toolkits that take climate change into account (climate change response strategy).

The paper also mentions that there are plans in place to build more dams, including the
Kunzwi dam, which is anticipated to increase water supplies from Lake Chivero, Harare's
primary reservoir source. There is evidence that these efforts are supported by civil society
through advocacy work for the conservation of wetlands to address the underlying causes of
some of the city's water issues, such as poor water quality, which is linked to the degradation
of wetlands, as well as some corporate social responsibility (CSR) to build communal
boreholes in response to the water scarcity and associated health epidemics. The CSOs now
educate communities on a variety of problems, including the value of wetlands, health, and
sanitation.

1.4 Policy Recommendations

In conclusion, the following suggestions are offered to promote climate resilience and
contextualised decision-making to enhance resilience to livelihoods in Harare communities in
the context of water scarcity. To address issues of climate risks and susceptibility and water
scarcity timely and effectively, there should be research that must be conducted regularly and
give pertinent climate information through stakeholder interactions. A continual risk
assessment procedure must also be started by the City of Harare to guarantee that
interventions and priorities are adequately addressed. The City of Harare must strive to
provide fair access to drinkable water for all residents, especially the city's impoverished.
Settlement on unserviced or inadequately serviced land without a water connection must be

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prohibited by laws put in place by the relevant authorities. Additionally, the City of Harare
needs to establish a climate change department or unit to concentrate on important climate-
related issues. Finally, the Zimbabwean government and the city of Harare must make sure
that the best domestic resource mobilisation is taking place for the development of
infrastructure.

1.5 References

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