This story is part of “Stories of Action,” a series highlighting the finalists from our first-ever global open call, which saw 175 organizations apply, leading to 24 finalists and four grant recipients. This initiative seeks to amplify impactful climate justice efforts and celebrate the ongoing work activists are doing around the world to advance climate justice.
Harare, the capital and largest city of Zimbabwe, is experiencing rapid urban sprawl and population growth, with 1.6 million people spread across the 45 municipal ward boundaries of the city. As the population surges, so to do the demands on the water infrastructure of the city. Furthermore, all of this is happening in a region where persistent droughts are already threatening water supplies.
This reality means that water shortages are a daily part of life for all residents. Water shortages are so bad that residents can go for weeks, or even months, without a regular supply of water from the Harare City Council. Some residents have attempted to dig for their own groundwater, but pollution has compromised the quality of most water sources. The lack of drinkable water has caused cholera outbreaks and food shortages.
The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) is a membership-based organization that advocates for quality municipal services and local governance for households in Zimbabwe’s capital. The members see power and opportunity in building coalitions that can coalesce around issues and amplify the voices and concerns of local residents regarding access to water.
CHRA believes that collective movements are best positioned to influence government institutions and unlock water governance policy reform within the city. To facilitate a collective movement, CHRA wants to counter fragmentation among the various civil society organizations working on water issues in Harare. CHRA recognizes that such divisions weaken the voice and agency of residents and hampers collective progress. To be successful in unlocking water governance reform and getting taps flowing, CHRA knows that those organizations who lobby and advocate at the national level must be brought together. This collaboration will reduce uncoordinated interventions, fragmentation, and discord messaging.
In addition to building a coalition of civil society organizations working on these issues, CHRA also believes in fostering a bottom-up approach to policy change, where community needs, experience, and decisions drive priorities and implementation. For the water crisis, CHRA’s bottom-up initiative aims to empower individuals to understand and assert their rights to clean, drinkable water. CHRA will then take these community demands and needs into the coalition spaces necessary for bringing about policy interventions.
By combining grassroots leadership with coordinated advocacy, CHRA is showing that solutions to Harare’s water crisis must start with the people—who grow stronger when community stand together. Learn more about The Combined Harare Residents Association’s work here.