People-Centred Initiatives as a Response to Infrastructure Collapse in Harare

Most local governments and utilities responsible for infrastructure provision and maintenance in Zimbabwe have huge infrastructure backlogs. This is in terms of both programmed maintenance and upgrades to cater for population growth and urban expansion. This is happening within a context of documented rapid urbanisation and population growth. Water is in short supply, roads are poorly maintained, waste is irregularly collected, and electricity services are erratic. Residents are tired of complaining in vain and are devising their own strategies to cope with poor infrastructure due to lack of or poor service delivery. Previous research has focussed on the extent of service delivery and infrastructure collapse. Using interviews, storytelling and field observations, this research sought to examine the strategies that people have devised to survive infrastructure failure resulting in poor service delivery by the authorities. It answers the questions: What are people doing when they are not supplied with water or electricity? What do they do when their roads are full of potholes and the authorities are not responding? What do they do when waste is not collected? How sustainable are the people’s coping mechanisms in the different infrastructure areas? How does this affect Harare’s capacity to meet the expectations of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda (NUA)? The chapter argues that while such people-centred mechanisms have had some positive outcomes, they will also have far-reaching impacts on governance and the exercise of power by authorities.