Virtually every corner of Zimbabwe has huge challenges concerning access to clean water, and despite all talk about the country committing itself to meeting its MDG targets with 2015 fast approaching, it is quite a statement to hear a woman ask the Harare mayor, “can you tell us if the water in our taps is safe to drink!”

The UN says you cannot separate water from all the Millennium Development Goals, it thus has to be asked that in a country where water has become such a very emotional issue because of its regular absence in our taps, what then does this say about the country meeting all the eight MDGs?

But then, this question is rhetorical as it is on record that we are off the mark on many of these fronts.

I was given a jolt, recalling that water treatment chemicals have been hard to come by for big cities such as Bulawayo, and for someone to pose that question, “can you tell us if the water in our taps is safe to drink?” says a lot about the downward spiral of service provision in this country in the past decade.

The occasion was a Quill Speak at the Ambassador Hotel and it was themed “The water supply crisis in Harare – what is the solution?”

The Harare mayor, 59 months on the job he said, attempted to provide insights into the mother city’s water headaches, but like many public officials in this country never seemed to have anything new to say other than what has become a well-worn motif: we don’t have the money.

Someone asked where then the mayor expects to get the money, and it was then that for me he provided a useful insight about what has gone wrong in this once romanticized “great African hope” back in the euphoria of 1980.

Council could raise funds for its service provision obligations such as the ever-snowballing water sector migraines by issuing municipal bonds, but this last happened in the 1990s before the dollar crashed in 1997, the mayor explained.

It is explained elsewhere “municipal bonds are securities that are issued for the purpose of financing the infrastructure needs of the issuing municipality.”

But in a country where everything has been blamed on the voodoo economics of Zanu PF, municipal bonds also became a victim; simply meaning that local authorities could not sustain themselves, raise their own revenue outside payment of bills by residents.

Yet resident associations have criticized these municipalities of trying to run their cities with money collected from bills, which is an impossible proposition.

It explains why virtually every council in this country is broke, with residents being forced to live with the reality of disease outbreak right on their door steps.

We only have the 2008 cholera outbreak as a painful example, which Sikhanyiso Ndlovu claimed back then and without any hint of tongue-in-cheek was part of a biological-chemical warfare unleashed by Zimbabwe’s enemies, when everyone else knew its genesis.

Another lady asked the Mayor why she should bother paying her bills when she hardly gets any water, a question that has been asked everywhere but has not elicited any convincing response from the local authorities.

It is a telling indictment that amidst all these questions, Zimbabweans find themselves being part of the 783 million people UN Water says do not have access to safe drinking water, and these are people living not in the rural outback, but in the city of Harare!

Zimbabwe’s sole power utility hopes to save electricity by influencing behavior change in electricity consumption through pre-paid meters. Pre-paid meters could be a solution to the billing shambles consumers had to face from ZESA but in the long run demand is already surpassing supply – something which is not going to be solved with energy saver bulbs and pre-paid meters. Giving energy saver bulbs to consumers will work only if there is electricity to save otherwise it’s a waste of resources. The nation needs to work on alternative sources of energy and allow the private sector to venture into power generation and stop relying on imports. The recent passing of a statutory instrument allowing high-end electricity consumers to purchase their own prepaid meters will ease the burden of procuring pre-paid meters by the nation’s struggling sole power utility, ZESA. The company has been enjoying a huge monopoly over electricity distribution in the country and it is failing to meet the increasing electricity demands, which has resulted in massive blackouts nationwide.

I attended university during a period where going to school seemed like wasting one’s precious time and adding more strain on family’s financial budgets. This was the period of 2006-2010 where Zimbabwe went through a major economic downfall, the 2008 elections and the dollarisation of the currency – a very difficult period. It did appear much better for one to quit school and cross the border to a neighbouring country as they would be guaranteed of access to their needs and wants. It is during this period that corruption within the various systems in the university grew like it was growing in any other sector in the country. You could see how people would manipulate the system because of a certain commodity they held, which was in demand. You would be shocked to hear what a lecturer would do when promised a bag of maize. As the economy got better with goods and commodities available, corruption, like cancer, still existed.

Students in Kenya and Uganda have established an anonymous website, Not In My Country which seeks to expose acts of corruption within universities in these two countries. By acting as whistle blowers, students rate their lecturers’ performances and have an optional field to explain their ratings. These are crowd sourced to provide ratings. In South Africa, university students at Wits are using the university newspaper, Vuvuzela, to expose lecturers who engage in misconduct in their work through sexual harassment. Students all over have been using various media to expose corruption within their universities but these are only effective if the university’s authorities take up their responsibility by investigating matters reported. Systems run by students often fall short as university staff protect each other as investigations or follow ups on reported cases are not made.

The Workers’ Day theme at Gwanzura stadium was “Workers under siege, organize unite and fight on” – indeed workers in Zimbabwe are under siege from politicians who have hijacked the event to further their interests. If workers have nothing to lose but their chains like what Karl Max said in his literature, maybe its high time Workers Day in Zimbabwe is left to workers and free from politics. Sloganeering and empty promises from civic society activists who are trying to transform into political parties were the only major highlights of the day for those who braved yesterday’s chilly morning weather. Instead of addressing bread and butter issues for the workers most labor organizations have aligned themselves to various political parties and workers have been left wondering if the occasion had been turned into a political gathering. To lead a labor organization is now a one-way ticket to political stardom and this has lead to massive splits in the labor movement in the country as noted by the contestations for donor funds yet the marginalized worker continues to rely on empty promises of decent wages and better working conditions. The government has also taken advantage of these disorganized labor movements by refusing to come to the negotiating table hiding under the disguise of demanding legitimate workers representatives from labor unions. The same politicians who were propelled into power through a labor backed party now seem to be enjoying the sweet benefits of power and have turned out to be the oppressors. One aspiring politician reminded workers who assembled at Raylton Sports Club yesterday to never trust politicians and later used the same platform to announce intentions of launching a political party!

The trend of poor service delivery by the local authorities and public institutions in Zimbabwe has reached alarming levels such that it has become a normal situation to get things like tap water from council after weekly intervals. It is now an acceptable trend to have excessive electricity load shedding every day and receive high bills at the end of the month. Boreholes and wells are now common features in every household and the sound of a generator is no longer a nuisance but music to people’s ears. When it rains be prepared to get an extra charge on commuter fares from the commuter omnibus operators. To get medical treatment for your loved one from the few doctors left in local hospitals a token of appreciation does the trick otherwise you will have to deal with long queues in the crowded corridors of short staffed hospitals. Customer care no longer exists in many shops as the non-refundable and no exchange disclaimer reminds you that what you are buying is inferior. But to many people to be shortchanged is not a normal situation.

As the nation gears up for a constitutional referendum, approximately seven in every ten people claim to have heard about the COPA process and 59% claim to be aware of the draft Constitution of Zimbabwe published in July 2012. The figure drops to 30% of adult Zimbabweans reported to have heard about the Second National All-Stakeholders’ Conference.

The Mass Public Opinion Institute revealed these results yesterday at a dissemination meeting on the State of the Economy and People’s Survival Strategies survey. The survey covered the period from 2009 to 2012 and had a national sample size of 1200 randomly selected participants, above 18 years of age.

Politics still dominate the economic turn-around of the country. The survey revealed that 16% of people interviewed think the Inclusive Government should seek external aid and create a more conducive environment for investment. According to public opinion, state organs and institutions were performing badly regarding the Global Peace Agreement. A majority (57%) of the respondents were not in favour of increasing the term of office for the Inclusive Government. The survey data shows the general impression that Zimbabweans will vote YES in the referendum but a substantial proportion said they do not know how they will vote since some claim not to have ever heard about the draft Constitution and the COPAC process.

Perceptions on the death penalty in Zimbabwe show a contrasting view to that published in the COPAC report. The MPOI survey shows 53 % of people interviewed to be in support of the abolishment of the death penalty. The support mainly came from female respondents.

On the issue of national elections this year, Zimbabweans of voting age feel the nation is ready to hold the election. Only a small portion (25%) disagrees as compared to 68% who are in favor of elections this year. Much emphasis on the need to engage international observers from SADC, EU and UN was suggested to ensure free and fair elections. The survey projected a closely fought race between ZANU PF and MDC-T with the latter still commanding a large support base in urban areas, especially among the male electorate.

On the economic state of the nation, 58% of the people interviewed felt that availability of consumer goods had become better over a period of one year but 59% of the urban respondents lamented the worsening employment crisis. The multi-currency system adopted by the nation continues to receive nationwide support with 68% supporting the dollarization of the economy.

The survey also noted high incidences of poverty as 61% of Zimbabweans indicated that they have sometimes gone without clean water, 62% say that they have not had enough to eat, and 70% lacking adequate medicine.

The source of income for many Zimbabweans is still agriculture with a few depending on a regular salary. Others have engaged in income generating activities like cross border trading.