Safe Drinking Water (Hansard, 3 November 2003)

§ Mr. Robathan
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what reports he has received on(a) the delivery of food aid to Zimbabwe to its 499W final recipients and (b) allegations of its subsequent confiscation by local members of Zanu-PF: and if he will make a statement. [135206]

§ Hilary Benn
The WFP and the international NGOs all provide detailed reports on the distribution of their food aid. An incident reporting procedure has been established by WFP and if there is any politicisation of the food aid the distribution is halted immediately and is only resumed once problems have been rectified. There has been one isolated minor incident reported several months ago when food aid was confiscated by Zanu-PF officials. This was dealt with effectively by WFP and in recent months no such incidents have been reported
The grain marketing board handles the government's food relief programme and the distribution is largely controlled by Zanu-PF officials, with the army, police and other party officials getting preference.

§ Mr. Robathan
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the World Food Programme's aid programme in Zimbabwe. [135207]

§ Hilary Benn
DFID staff based in Harare maintain very close contact with the world food programme and its operations in Zimbabwe. We are confident that they are implementing an effective programme under very difficult circumstances. The WFP undertake their own internal evaluations of their activities and we review the reports regularly.
We have recently provided a further £5 million to the WFP for its operations in Zimbabwe and of this £0.5 million will be used to further improve its monitoring and reporting capacity.

§ Mr. Paul Marsden
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proportion of the population of Zimbabwe has access to a plentiful supply of safe drinking water. [135257]

§ Hilary Benn
It is not possible to provide accurate figures as many services are declining as a result of the deteriorating economy.
According to the national environmental health office in the ministry of health and child welfare (MOHCW), access to safe water in urban areas is above 90 per cent. This figure will be an overestimate as a result of the rapid increase in urban migrations and the rapid increase of un-serviced informal settlements in semi-urban areas (especially Harare and Bulawayo). City councils are having difficulties in procuring water treatment chemicals due to lack of foreign exchange.
The rural proportion had an estimated 75 per cent. coverage but this will vary around the country. This will also be an over estimation because it does not take account of the distance people may have to travel to get to the water point or the large number of water points that are not operational.