Status of water governance in urban areas in Zimbabwe: some preliminary observations from the city of Harare

Good water governance, has been regarded as a sine qua non for improving the management of world water resources. Stakeholder participation is considered an important precondition for improving water governance. This paper reports on how it is being implemented in urban areas in Zimbabwe by studying how this is being undertaken in the city of Harare. The study was not designed to generate generalisable findings but to gain insights into the salient features of water governance in the urban areas. Three areas of investigation were chosen for analysis; whether water shaped the political agenda as expressed in local elections; perceptions and actions of the different actors and information about new water institutions. There was some degree of stakeholder participation, which, however, was compromised by the fact that it was uncoordinated, involved a few stakeholders (it excluded the generality of the residents) and tended to occur outside the designated formal channels. Interference from central government was another problem. It can be concluded that improving governance of water management in Zimbabwe's urban areas faces more challenges than in the rural areas. For example unlike their rural counterparts urban residents were not considered as stakeholders in their own right. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.