BULAWAYO - In the high-density suburbs of Bulawayo, where water scarcity has become a defining part of everyday life, one group of women is refusing to remain invisible. For years, women with disabilities have faced unique challenges in accessing clean water, sanitation facilities, and sexual and reproductive health services. Yet instead of waiting for change, they are leading it, one advocacy campaign, one policy dialogue, and one accessible water point at a time.
For women like Nomaqhawe Moyo, navigating a city with long water queues and steep, uneven terrain is not just about survival -- it's a daily act of resilience. A wheelchair user and disability rights advocate, Moyo has spent years advocating for accessibility in municipal water, sanitation, and health planning.
"Accessible WASH and SRHR services are not optional; they are fundamental human rights," she says firmly. "We are not asking for special treatment. We are demanding equity."
Her words reflect the broader struggle of women with disabilities in Bulawayo, where gender, poverty, and disability often intersect to magnify exclusion. The city's ongoing 130-hour weekly water-shedding programme has deepened inequalities, forcing women with mobility challenges to depend on others for basic needs such as fetching water or accessing toilets.
Across the city, small groups of women with disabilities are transforming their lived experiences into advocacy. Organisations such as the Emthonjeni Women's Forum and the Progressive Residents Association have become powerful vehicles for collective action, helping women articulate their priorities in municipal spaces that have traditionally overlooked them.
Sikhathele Mathambo from the Emthonjeni Women's Forum, says women with disabilities are reframing public discourse around access. "When it comes to water, women, the elderly, children, and persons with disabilities usually bear the brunt," she explains. "Inclusive planning that addresses these intersecting vulnerabilities ensures dignity, safety, and equitable access."
Her forum's work includes training women advocates to monitor the accessibility of water and sanitation points, report service delivery gaps, and engage directly with the City Council. The message is clear: accessibility must be designed into the system, not added as an afterthought.
The city's water crisis has long exposed the gaps in urban infrastructure. Steep steps, narrow pathways, and non-functional taps make public water points inaccessible for people with mobility challenges. Public toilets often lack ramps or handrails, while many clinics are difficult to reach due to poor transport options.
For women with disabilities, these barriers extend beyond physical access; they affect participation in civic, economic, and educational life. Without reliable water or accessible sanitation, many are forced to stay home, missing out on work, school, or community engagements.
Sukoluhle Mhlanga, Secretary for Disability at the Progressive Residents Association, notes that gender and disability issues must be tackled together. "When we separate gender from disability, we create policies that look good on paper but don't work in practice," she says. "Our advocacy is about lived realities -- about making sure women with disabilities can access toilets, fetch water, and visit health centres safely."
Over the years, persistent advocacy by women with disabilities has started to reshape how the City of Bulawayo approaches urban inclusion. The City of Bulawayo Disability Policy now provides a framework for accessible service delivery. It mandates that all public facilities, including water points, sanitation infrastructure, and health centres, be accessible to persons with disabilities.
Importantly, it also requires the active participation of disability groups in decision-making, ensuring that municipal plans and budgets reflect practical, lived experiences.
"Policies are only meaningful when they are informed by the people they affect," says Soneni Gwizi, a well-known disability rights activist who has been auditing public spaces for accessibility. "Our advocacy must go beyond statements -- it must transform how services are designed, delivered, and monitored.....True inclusion means no one is left behind when services are designed and delivered," she emphasises. "Accessibility is a right, not a privilege."
Women with disabilities in Bulawayo are not working in isolation. Their efforts are linked to broader regional and global frameworks, including the SADC Gender Protocol, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 3 (Health), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation).
According to Tariro Gurure, another disability rights advocate, aligning local action with these frameworks gives their work both legitimacy and leverage. "We use the language of the SDGs to hold local authorities accountable," she explains. "When we talk about universal access to water and sanitation, we mean access for everyone, including those of us with disabilities."
Gurure and her peers have proposed mobile water stations and disability-friendly sanitation units, practical solutions that help women with disabilities navigate daily challenges. Development partners, including UN Women and local NGOs, have begun providing technical and financial support to scale up such initiatives.
The Bulawayo Residents Summit, held annually, has become a turning point in how disability inclusion is embedded in civic processes. While earlier summits focused largely on service delivery and accountability, this year's meeting took a transformative step, ensuring that the voices of women with disabilities are not only heard but included in decision-making about the city's future.
For the first time, women with disabilities co-chaired discussion panels on water, sanitation, and access to health services. Their recommendations were included in the official communique to the City Council, a milestone in participatory governance.
"Representation is not enough," said Mhlanga during one session. "We need inclusion, being in the room, shaping the agenda, and ensuring that accessibility is built into every decision."
The summit also facilitated dialogue between residents, local authorities, and development partners, resulting in commitments to audit WASH infrastructure for accessibility, integrate disability-sensitive programming into SRHR services, and create community monitoring mechanisms.
Climate change continues to magnify vulnerabilities. Bulawayo's erratic rainfall patterns and prolonged droughts have worsened water scarcity, putting additional strain on residents -- especially those with disabilities. Women advocates are now leading community-driven climate adaptation initiatives, such as community-based water monitoring and inclusive drought response planning.
"These challenges have forced us to be innovative," says Moyo. "We are designing adaptive solutions that make sense for everyone, especially those of us who are most affected."
The advocacy of women with disabilities goes beyond the pursuit of accessible taps and toilets. It's about reshaping systems to ensure that planning, budgeting, and implementation recognise the needs of those often left behind. Their leadership strengthens transparency, accountability, and community resilience.
The outcomes are already visible: improved communication channels with local authorities, better representation in city planning committees, and stronger collaboration between government and civil society.
Empowering women with disabilities has ripple effects, including improved school attendance, reduced health risks, and increased economic participation. As Gwizi notes, "When accessibility improves for persons with disabilities, it improves for everyone."
Bulawayo's experience offers lessons for other cities across Zimbabwe and the region. It demonstrates that when women with disabilities are empowered to lead, communities become more equitable, responsive, and resilient.
Their ongoing advocacy, grounded in lived experience and informed by international frameworks, is helping to turn global commitments into tangible, local realities.
"Change is slow," Moyo admits, "but it's happening. We've moved from being spoken for, to speaking for ourselves, to sitting at the table where decisions are made."
And as Bulawayo's women with disabilities continue to lead the push for accessible water, sanitation, and health services, they remind the city, and the nation, that inclusion is not charity. It is justice.