Call to improve Harare's bad liveability ranking

Call to improve Harare's bad liveability ranking
Published: 02 June 2022
The city of Harare should work to improve its bad ranking in the liveable index to attain world class city status, Harare Residence Trust director Precious Shumba has said.

Harare City Council has been pushing a grand programme to turn the city into a world class location by 2025.

But, the city is confronting serious health and general well being issues.

Consequently, Harare was ranked a lowly 133 out of 140 cities in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Index, making Zimbabwe's capital city one of the 10 least liveable cities in the world in 2021.

The index assesses which locations around the world provide the best and worst living conditions based on five categories that is stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

Shumba said Harare needs to improve its standing in the global arena to attain its vision of a world class city by 2025.

The poor ranking, he said should put significant pressure to the local authority.

"The City of Harare should undergo serious changes in areas of health, water, security and waste management service delivery. The council needs to increase its water pumping capacity and protect its wetlands and plug all the leakages on the distribution network," Shumba said.

He added: "The report is very correct to rank Harare as one of the most unlivable cities in the world alongside such war-torn places like Damascus.

"The report makes valid and substantive observations which produce valid and reliable findings. Human rights violations were prevalent during the Covid-19 peak period with tight restrictions on people's movements in between cities and towns to the extent that at one-point people could not get into the city center without authorisation letters to show that one was an essential service worker.

Therefore migrating to western cities for better paying jobs and improved working conditions.

"The police and military were in total control and determined people's movements, and they took bribes from overburdened citizens, thus worsening the security situation to intolerable He said people have levels.

Harare also scored poorly in the health care category. The reasons for such a low resigned themselves to dying at home due to low-income levels and they cannot pay for medicines.

Score Shumba stated had to "Consultation fees are do with shortage of health care professionals, poor service delivery and a lack of resources.

"Health is a huge challenge to most residents. Most health facilities run by the government and the council are poorly resourced, health workers are disgruntled and paid but no treatment is administed. The research focused more on the Covid-19 impact, and health is a major factor to consider under those circumstances. The low uptake of vaccines also fuels fear factor among people," Shumba said.
- Business Times
Tags: Harare,

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