Harare - The world marked the United Nations' first Global Hand-Washing Day Wednesday but in Zimbabwe, where a severe economic crisis has made clean water a precious commodity, handwashing can be downright risky.

The UN introduced the day to highlight the importance of handwashing to prevent disease in a world in which about half the population does not have access to safe water.

In parts of the Zimbabwean capital Harare residents go for more than three weeks without tap water, because the government of President Robert Mugabe is short on cash to pay for water purification chemicals.

"For us here washing hands can be a luxury. There is no safe water. We now mainly depend on water from wells," said Shame Chinyani, a 27 year-old resident of Chitungwiza, a township of nearly one million residents about 30 kilometres south-east of Harare.

"When the water is available from the taps, it is usually very dirty. The situation is very bad and if something is not done urgently, the whole population will suffer from water-borne diseases," said Chinyani.

The lack of water forces people to defecate in the open, where the collapse of the refuse collection system means huge heaps of garbage have piled up in the streets.

The sanitation breakdown is causing increasingly regular outbreaks of cholera. One such outbreak claimed at least eleven people lives in Chitungwiza in September.

"I think the idea of such a day (Global Handwashing Day) is wonderful. People need to be made aware of the importance of washing hands to avoid diseases outbreaks," said 32-year-old Mary Shambandiripo, a mother of two who lost a cousin to cholera.

Health experts say the situation is the result of an economic crisis characterized by nine-figure inflation that has left Mugabe's regime effectively bankrupt.

In most southern townships of Harare, Zimbabweans, once among Africa's richest people, are now drawing water from rivers or shallow wells.

Besides water, cash, fuel and food are in critically short supply.

Zimbabweans had been hoping for a reprieve when Mugabe struck a deal with Morgan Tsvangirai in September to share power in a unity government, to which Western governments tentatively promised aid.

But squabbling between the rivals over the distribution of ministries has delayed the implementation of the deal. (dpa)