Water management in a hyperinflationary environment: Case study of Nkayi district in Zimbabwe

This paper discusses the management of local drinking water supplies in Nkayi, a poor rural district in Zimbabwe. The government policy of rural development has evolved a national sector strategy for water and sanitation, implemented through an Integrated Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (IRWSS) programme 1987–2000, with largely donor funding. One aspect of the programme has seen the construction and upgrading of communally-owned boreholes and deep-wells in villages to allow continuous access to sufficient and safe drinking water within a reasonable walking distance. However, due to dwindling state resources and budgetary constraints, since the 1990s, government has been decentralising service provision to local communities’ including water supply. This paper reveals how eight villages in Nkayi have qualitatively managed to innovatively sustain reliable water supply to continue to meet domestic demand despite the challenges of acute water shortages and the burden of rising maintenance costs due to hyperinflation. Despite an unfavourable economic environment, a unique cost-sharing and resource mobilization process by the community, Nkayi has ensured that 87 per cent of water points remain functional.