Water crisis forces Zim House to adjourn

Water crisis forces Zim House to adjourn
Written by Kingsley Kaswende in Harare
Sunday, November 16, 2008 9:09:09 PM

THE critical shortage of water that has hit Harare has forced the Zimbabwean Parliament to adjourn by a month, only hours after the House resumed sitting from another forced adjournment.

A crunch shortage of water has hit most Harare suburbs and the city centre, causing a cholera epidemic that has claimed about 200 lives in the past four weeks, according to the Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights.

The House was forced to adjourn to December 16, hours after legislators resumed sitting from another forced three-week adjournment.
The House was earlier forced to adjourn on October 23 to November 11 because of lack of finances and could not sustain its operations.
Parliament had failed to pay hotel bills for about 180 parliamentarians and about 70 senators who were mostly based outside Harare and they were therefore turned away from city hotels.
The House had not been allocated money from the treasury to pay for the legislators' accommodation and allowances during their sessions.
At that time, the House had only started its business for the first time since members of parliament were elected in March.
The House was officially opened in July by President Robert Mugabe but was immediately adjourned to the second week of October.
Over the past eight months, the law-making body has not had time to debate the 2008 budget and to consent financial allocations.
MDC member of parliament for Mbare Constituency, Peniel Denga, said there was very little business in Parliament on Tuesday, except debate on the presidential speech. There were no new motions introduced.
"At the end of business it was decided to adjourn Parliament to next month because of the bad conditions of toilets in the building. We are sitting on a time bomb if we don't act quick enough to avert the spread of the deadly cholera disease," Denga said.

Among the critical issues to be debated this session of Parliament are the 2008 budget and the constitutional amendment number 19, which is expected to create the post of Prime Minister that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been allocated under the power-sharing deal, along with other posts and changes.