Bottled water is 'the new gold' in drought-hit Harare

By Ray Mwareya HARARE (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The joke in Harare these days is that more people per square metre are drinking bottled water here - in the drought-hit capital of Zimbabwe - than in wealthy Manhattan. Harare has developed a huge appetite for bottled water. An estimated 300,000 litres change hands daily in this city of just over 1.6 million inhabitants, with Zimbabwe's finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa, saying that imports have reached "crazy" proportions.