I always think of a guy in one of the tech enthusiasts WhatsApp group im in who always say, “pamunogesa mafruits paye nemvura yecouncil, munenge muchitoti matogeza mafruits here Kan kuti kungoitira chirango”. This can be loosely translated to mean, “ Whenever you wash your fruits with Harare Tap water, will you be genuinely washing the fruits or you are doing it to fulfil a long-standing tradition without necessarily cleaning the fruits for consumption” Most people, especially in big cities in Zimbabwe, know better than to drink tap water which is not really clean and usually has a very terrible after taste.
How tap water got to have such a nasty aftertaste is a story for another day. Sometimes it’s easy to focus on the solution than the problem and that’s exactly what we will do today. All we know is not all of us can sink boreholes in this economy. Even those that have managed to sink boreholes, in some suburbs in Harare West, their boreholes are running dry. It’s a matter of drilling a deeper hole than your neighbour. This among other reasons means some people have more than one reason to use and rely on tap water provided by local authorities and in some cases ZINWA.
If you are in one of the cities that have to treat (I use the term loosely) your water before you drink it, these three tips will help you drink clean filtered water.
- If like many people you have fewer resources to invest in purifying your water, resort to the old method of drinking only boiled water. You can pass it through a sieving mash cloth or a simple clean kitchen cloth before you boil it to make sure it is dirty particles-free before killing all the pathogens that might be present in the water. To ensure you don’t experience fatigue in doing this till you stop and go back to tap water, make sure you do this for your drinking water only. Pick a day you do this and store your filtered clean water in the fridge or in one area and make sure you have a supply that lasts you till the next cycle of purifying your water.
- You can go to your nearest Electrosales Hardware or any hardware and ask for their water purifying kits and they will show you a lot of options that start from as little as $28 for a filter insert. All you have to do is make the trip and the salespeople will find a solution that will better suit you.
- Alternatively, if filtering water is not your cup of coffee you can just buy chemicals like water guard or water purifying tablets and enjoy your water safely. The tip is not to break the bank trying to purify your drinking water.