Urbanization and Service Delivery Planning: Analysis of Water and Sanitation Management Systems in the City of Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Urbanization has in recent years epitomized the developing world’s human movement landscapes. The increased concentration of populations into developing countries’ cities was, however, devoid of the attendant planning for service delivery, with the result that the urban system became incrementally overwhelmed. The resultant conditions have commonly bred social ills ranging from overcrowding, crime, spread of water-borne diseases, dearth of sanitation and deterioration of the urban delivery systems, which are often transposed into the planned sections of the cities. This paper provides an analysis of urbanization experiences in Harare City, Zimbabwe, in order to demonstrate the linkages with disruption of the service delivery systems, poor water supplies, dearth of sanitation and deterioration of waste management. The paper concludes that these social ills are a function of the crisis of urban planning occasioned by misconceptions that manifest in the form of discrepancies between urban development investments and national demographic dynamics.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p2905