The Blue Community Network is delighted to designate the first Blue Community in Zimbabwe. The organisation MAYA, the Manica Youth Assembly from Mutare, committed to the Blue Community values and joins the global network.
MAYA is «youth driven by integrity in environmental justice, gender justice, livelihood and socio-economic justice».
In their commitment to become a Blue Community, MAYA writes:
«We join the Blue Community because water is central to our work in Manicaland. With the Manica Youth Assembly and our project Manica WaterKeeper, we protect rivers, restore ecosystems, and advocate for clean water as a human right and public good.»
MAYA hopes to gain through the Blue Community access to tools, case studies, and campaigns from the global network to strengthen its local advocacy, connections to allies for joint actions and solidarity when they face pushback, and visibility for Manicaland’s water issues on international platforms. In turn, MAYA will contribute grassroots experience from river monitoring, community water audits, and youth-led watchdog work in Mutare and surrounding districts.
MAYA can mobilize youth and community groups for Blue Community campaigns across Zimbabwe and will actively document and share its tactics on river protection, fossil fuel impacts on water, and engaging local councils.
MAYA has spoken out against water pollution from unsustainable mining operations that prioritize industry profits over residents’ health and access to safe water. MAYA plans to train youth “Water Rights Monitors” to track and report violations of the right to water to local authorities and human rights bodies. It will run rights-based awareness campaigns in schools and communities on entitlements under Zimbabwe’s Constitution and intends to petition local councils to adopt resolutions recognizing water and sanitation as human rights and to challenge water cut-offs for vulnerable households.
MAYA’s goal is to keep water and wastewater services in Zimbabwe publicly financed, owned, and operated to protect affordability and accountability. MAYA has been following proposals for public-private partnerships in Harare, Bulawayo, and Mutare and raised concerns about them in community forums. MAYA has also spoken out against bulk water allocations to mining companies during droughts that put industry before residents. MAYA plans to start documenting these privatization threats and their impacts on communities, launching a “Water is Not for Sale” awareness campaign and lobby Parliament, the water service ZINWA, and councils to increase public investment in water systems instead of outsourcing. MAYA will also work with residents’ associations and unions to monitor water contracts and promote public solutions.
On Blue Community pledge 3, Promotion of safe public drinking water everywhere to end the need for bottled water, MAYA commits to «make public tap water safe, trusted, and accessible so communities no longer rely on bottled water». MAYA is advocating to end the use of bottled water at its meetings and workshops. Now they serve boiled or filtered tap water instead and use these spaces to educate participants on why public water systems matter. MAYA has also raised concerns in schools about broken drinking fountains and the shift to bottled water among students. And is planning to start documenting bottled water use at public events and its cost compared to tap water. MAYA will lobby local councils to ban bottled water at municipal functions and to repair public water points in schools, clinics, and markets, running “Drink Tap” awareness campaigns using water quality results from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority to rebuild public trust in municipal water.
Jussa Kudherezera, founder and director of MAYA, states:
«I want to affiliate with the Blue Community Network because I share its core values and oppose water privatization, believing water must remain under public, community control. Local water struggles in Zimbabwe are connected to global challenges, and I want to stand in solidarity with other communities resisting water grabs and pollution while learning from their experiences. Affiliation also gives me a framework to demand greater transparency and accountability from authorities on water governance in Zimbabwe. For me, this is a two-way commitment where I gain a global community and the network gains a frontline partner in Southern Africa.»
Sir Charles Chitechi, Founder & President of the Kenyan Blue Community WASWAK – Water and Sanitation Workers Association Kenya – and Regional Coordinator for the Blue Community in Eastern Africa, welcomes MAYA:
«It is indeed worth noting that our collective responsibility to increase coverage as a Blue Community in the Eastern Region of Africa is becoming a reality, with the addition of MAYA, who has joined us all the way from lovely Zimbabwe. It is my honour to salute Mr Jussa Kudherezera and officially welcome him to the home of Blue Communities.
Your commitment to mobilising young people through MAYA demonstrates your concern for the next generation, and your organisation’s commitment to ensuring clean, safe, affordable, and sustainable water and sanitation services for all. Let this new network and unity of purpose push us towards achieving SDG6 in Africa. #KaribuNyumbani»
