Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
rural homes and settled at the mission farm, especially during the 1970s. They were
allocated pieces of land to construct houses and to grow crops. Many people remained at
Epworth after Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 and the settlement continued to grow,
becoming a clearly urban settlement, although agriculture was still (and is still) practiced
(Rakodi 1995). In 1983 the Epworth Mission transferred ownership of the farmland to the
Ministry of Local Government (Clarge 1999) - excluding a small portion upon which the
Mission, a theological college and a children's home are built. Subsequently, the
population continued to rise, reaching around 35,000 people by 1987, most of whom
were informally settled (Rakodi 1995) and rising further to 113,884 recorded in the 2002
national census (CSO 2003). The settlement is continuing to grow rapidly towards the
south and east. Epworth has always been and remains to be one of the lowest income
areas in Harare Metropolitan Province (Rakodi 1995). Density of settlement is now very
high, with as many as 40 people per stand in some areas by the early 1990s (Butcher
1993).
Epworth is an unusual case, since it is the only informal settlement in the Harare area
that the post-independence government has been prepared to upgrade (in terms of
settlement planning and infrastructure development), rather than demolish. Although the
decision to upgrade was taken in 1983, work only commenced in the 1990s (Butcher
1993). The process of providing the Epworth area with mains water supply, sewage
reticulation, an electricity grid and rubbish collection services has been extremely slow.
By 1988, 75% of residents were still using wells for water supply and over 80% were
using pit latrines (Butcher 1993). Newer areas to the north and west are essentially un-
supplied. Households without piped water rely on wells. Epworth is still not provided
with sewerage or electricity reticulation-or with rubbish collection. The lack of piped
sanitation continues to be a major health problem for the households relying on
groundwater for domestic water use. Gastrointestinal diseases are endemic, and
particularly pronounced in the rainy season.
