Harare- On the floor of Parliament, the air was thick with the familiar scent of political hedging.

But for Brighton Mazhindu, the Member of Parliament for St Mary’s, the stench wafting through his mind was not that of bureaucratic doublespeak, it was the unmistakable, fetid smell of raw sewage that has become the unwelcome signature of his constituency.

As the sun rose over Chitungwiza, mothers in St Mary’s and Zengeza began their daily ritual: stepping over open drains and holding their children close to avoid the toxic runoff pooling in the streets.

They have lived with this reality for years. But now, the government is asking them to prepare for a new reality, prepaying for the very water they are so desperately lacking.

In a comprehensive five-pronged parliamentary inquiry, Mazhindu forced the Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Daniel Garwe, to confront the bitter irony at the heart of Harare’s ongoing installation of smart prepaid water meters.

The MP’s questions cut to the core of a deepening urban crisis: is it justifiable to demand advance payment for a service that is often non-existent, and what happens to the poor when the water runs out, and the credit runs thinner?

The Inconvenient Truth of the “Smart” Meter

Mazhindu opened his cross-examination with a question that echoes in the empty pipes of Harare’s suburbs: what benefits does the government actually expect residents to derive from prepaid meters, given that there has been “no significant improvement in the supply, reliability and quality of water services?”

It was a query designed to dismantle the glossy narrative of technological progress. In theory, prepaid meters end arbitrary estimated billing and promote conservation. But in practice, as Mazhindu pointed out, you cannot conserve what does not flow.

He pressed further on the existential contradiction of the programme: what measures are in place to ensure residents are not forced to pay upfront for a product that is “frequently unavailable, intermittent or inconsistent?”

The question struck a nerve. Harare’s water woes are legendary—ageing infrastructure, erratic pumping, and broken pipes mean that many households go days, sometimes weeks, without a single drop from the tap.

To ask them to pay before they turn the handle, when the handle often yields nothing, is a political powder keg.

On 21 May 2021, the Media Centre in its Citizen Update reported that a child was reported dead after drowning in a pool of sewage in Manyame Park. The same pool had rendered the road impassable by sewer flows.

Meters Over Mains: A Question of Priorities

Perhaps the most scathing part of Mazhindu’s inquiry concerned the allocation of public resources. He demanded to know how the government justifies prioritising the installation of meters ahead of “critical investments in rehabilitating the dilapidated water and sewer reticulation infrastructure.”

The MP highlighted the devastating impact of non-revenue water, the water that is pumped but lost to leaks and theft before it ever reaches a consumer.

In Harare, this loss is estimated to be over 50%. Mazhindu argued that fixing the crumbling arteries of the city’s water system should take precedence over installing a payment system on a broken machine.

Minister Garwe, in his response, insisted the two streams of work are “running in parallel.” He argued that the smart prepaid system represents a “structural shift” from the old, corruptible estimated flat-rate billing. However, the Minister’s assurances did little to quell the anger bubbling beneath the surface of the debate, particularly when it turned to the issue of the vulnerable.

The Human Cost and the Right to Water

Mazhindu demanded to know what safeguards exist for low-income households who might be denied access to water simply because they cannot afford to purchase credit. In a country where the unemployment rate is staggeringly high and informal employment is precarious, the threat of water disconnection is a threat to life itself.

Garwe replied that a “social protection framework” is in place and that emergency distribution mechanisms would bridge service gaps during maintenance. Yet, the Minister did not provide specific details on how this framework would work or how it would be funded.

It was here that Mazhindu delivered his final, and most profound, strike: had the government undertaken any assessment of the potential impact of prepaid water meters on access to water as a “basic human right”.

This is not a peripheral issue. Section 77 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe guarantees every person the right to safe, clean, and potable water.

Garwe acknowledged the state’s constitutional obligations but maintained that the system is “designed with consumer protections.” He offered no specific findings of any human rights impact assessment—likely because none has been publicly conducted.

The Toxic Backdrop: Pump Station No. 3

Mazhindu’s questions on meters do not exist in a vacuum. They are inextricably linked to the environmental and public health disaster unfolding just outside his constituency offices.

In a related matter, Garwe was forced to apprise the House on the continued malfunctioning of Sewer Pump Station No. 3.

The background of this station is a chronicle of institutional failure. This critical piece of infrastructure, which receives sewage from St Mary’s, Zengeza 1, and Zengeza 5, has been a “hotspot” for pollution for decades. The Chitungwiza Municipality has previously admitted to discharging a staggering 25 megalitres of raw sewage daily into the Manyame and Nyatsime rivers since 2004.

The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has even convicted the municipality for disposing of raw sewage without a licence, yet the pollution has persisted.

Garwe noted that the rehabilitation project, supported by the African Development Bank, is now 90% complete.

However, when Zengeza West MP, Innocent Zvaipa rose to speak, he cut through the figures: “We, as the residents of Chitungwiza, have not seen the measures that he mentioned… we are living in a sewer as before.”

Garwe assured the House that resources have been mobilised and that by the end of next month, the spillages would cease.

A Betrayal of Trust?

As Mazhindu sat down after his rigorous questioning, the juxtaposition in the parliamentary record became stark. On one hand, the government is pushing a high-tech, pre-paid system that forces residents to pay upfront for water.

On the other, the same government is struggling to stop a decades-long flood of raw sewage that violates the very essence of a clean environment.

For the people of St Mary’s, the introduction of prepaid meters feels less like progress and more like a penalty.

They are being asked to invest financially in a system that has already failed to invest in their health, their dignity, and their right to a clean life. The smart meter may track every drop they buy, but until the taps flow reliably and the sewage stops flowing in the streets, the only thing being prepaid is the patience of the people.