The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu
THE hot sun scotches the earth with unrestrained intensity; livestock in their skeletal frame look very miserable and unfit even for consumption. One can easily count the ribs as drought takes its toll on both humans and livestock.
The little available water is like rain in a desert as the remaining watering holes are dry or drying up. Vegetation and crops are wilting under the ruthlessness glare of the sun that has turned the earth brown. This is the set up that communities in some parts of Nkayi District in Matabeleland North Province have been facing as dams have been affected by siltation, in addition to little or no rains in the past rainy season.
The situation has presented a water challenge for villagers as they have limited sources of water for them and their livestock.
Villagers say they have resorted to killing some of their livestock to avoid seeing them dying each day.
Mr Richard Ncube of Ward 3 said when they kill some of their livestock they find the insides dry.
“Singabulala inkomo sithola amatwane esewomile ngoba inkomo azila manzi (when we slaughter some cattle we find the tripe dry from shortage of water in the system),” said Mr Ncube.
But the villagers’ story does not end like that, as there are solutions in the minds of the leadership that is not divorced from the struggles of its people. In a bid to alleviate the water challenges in the area, the Member of Parliament for Nkayi North Cde Sithembiso Nyoni donated a scooper that has been scooping silted dams. The target is to scoop a total of 10 dams before the rains fall. She said the development was meant to change the lives of the communities.
“The dams are full of silt and we have to ensure that we scoop those places that can hold water so that when the rains come they can harvest more water. This water will be used by both livestock and the community around them,” she said.
Cde Nyoni said the only way communities could take ownership of the project was by active participation. The villagers of various communities made some contributions that were used to purchase diesel for the machinery that is scooping the dams in various areas.
Men, women and the youth are participating in various ways to ensure that the scooping of the dams is a success.
Cde Nyoni said when communities pull their resources together for developmental purposes the results were always impressive and there was strong unity of purpose as they all wanted to realise the fruits of their labour.
As the dam scooping takes place communities are also preparing for the rainy season in terms of agriculture by getting seedlings for bananas and sugarcane. During a tour of developmental projects in Nkayi District last week, Cde Nyoni said she was donating banana plants so that the communities could start plantations for their own benefit.
“I am bringing banana trees and sugarcane that you will plant close to the water sources, I have consulted and heard that they are good for this area so you will benefit from these and find markets for the produce,” she said.
She said the villagers have benefited vast knowledge about environmentally friendly agricultural practices which include cultivating away from the water sources. She encouraged villagers that have their gardens next to the river bed to move them further away so that there was no siltation.
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has been educating communities on conserving the environment in the face of rapid climate change. Some villagers like Mr Reuben Ndlovu who is the chairperson of Vukuzenzele Dam Project said cattle from his area walk a distance of 13 kilometres to the nearest water point and said the dam scooping programme was going a long way in alleviating the problem.
Cotton which is said to be a suitable crop for Nkayi will soon be grown in the area and the MP said it would alleviate the villagers’ suffering as it is a cash crop. This, she said, would enable the villagers to send their children to school. Mathema area village head said their cattle were being affected by the shortage of water which was making them vulnerable to diseases.
“Our cattle are suffering. There is no water to give them, they are now vulnerable to diseases but we are happy that at last they will have a reliable water source to drink from. The challenge was that humans are scrounging for that little water that animals are drinking, catching diseases in the process,” he said.
Irrigation is one of the key areas that communities in Nkayi want to embark on at a larger scale. They say once dams have been scooped and they have water they can irrigate crops and aid in their means of producing food for home consumption and also for sale.
The hunger for economic participation and poverty alleviation has seen villagers setting up gardens where different vegetables are grown and sold to the community as well as outsiders. They also feed their families. Other development partners have chipped in and set up solar-powered boreholes and drip irrigation equipment that are being used to water the gardens. This irrigation system has assisted the communities that have been fetching water a distance from their gardens and have increased their production since the coming of this new technology.
Nkayi has from time immemorial been called komnyam’ubambile (a cursed place) as it was regarded as backward and underdeveloped but that is changing as the community has taken action and declared war on the things that were pulling them back.
