The Sunday News
Richard Muponde
GEOGRAPHY says two thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by water and biology says the human body consists 75 percent of water which makes it evidently clear that water is one of the prime elements responsible for life on earth.
Water is important to geography as it is to the human body, transporting, dissolving, and replenishing nutrients and organic matter, while carrying away waste material. Further in the body, both human and animal it regulates the activities of fluids, tissues, cells, lymph, blood and glandular secretions.
According to science an average adult body contains 42 litres of water and with just a small loss of 2,7 litres a person can suffer from dehydration, displaying symptoms of irritability, fatigue, nervousness, dizziness, weakness, headaches and consequently reach a state of pathology. This gives credence to the aphorism “water is life” as without it life is not sustainable.
Dr Fereydon Batmanghelidj, in his book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, gives a wonderful essay on water and its vital role in the health of a water “starved” society.
He writes: “Since the ‘water’ we drink provides for cell function and its volume requirements, the decrease in our daily water intake affects the efficiency of cell activity . . . as a result chronic dehydration causes symptoms that equal disease . . . ”
With this in mind and taking into cognisance the collateral damage storms and floods caused to Gwanda District’s water bodies, a time bomb is awaiting as villagers risk dehydration and chronic diseases as nearly all dams were swept away especially in Gwanda South and North where the rural populace live.
Come dry season, Gwanda villagers and livestock will face death from thirst as they have nowhere to turn to for the precious liquid.
Eight dams were swept away in rural Gwanda translating to 85 percent of the district’s water sources. This has seen calls from villagers growing louder each day for a remedy to be put in place sooner than later and a permanent one for that matter, as relying on earth dams has proved futile.
However, Gwanda is endowed with four major rivers, Umzingwane, Mbembesi, Tuli, Mtshabezi which cut across the district and Shashe at the border with Botswana, which can be a permanent source of water if it’s tapped for use by villagers. These exclude their tributaries which pass through various villages but often get dry during the dry season.
Despite the presence of these rivers in the district, distances which villagers have to travel makes it difficult to meet their daily and animals’ water needs. Some villagers have to travel distances ranging from 15 to 20 kilometres to the nearest river to fetch water. In view of this predicament and with the abundance of sunlight in Gwanda and the existence of the major rivers which cut across the district, one can be forgiven for suggesting that it should be the last to cry over perennial water shortages but the situation is such that the district is one of the drought prone in the country.
Agricultural activities can only be sustained through irrigation water although more can be done to avert serious food shortages in a district where there is plenty of sunlight. Doing more however, depends on whether mechanisms are put in place for water and sunlight to be tapped in the district so that it can be turned into a greenbelt for Matabeleland South.
Solar water pumps are a panacea for Gwanda water problems and tap water is the only way to go. Precedence has already been set in Ntalale Village about 50 kilometres from Gwanda town where villagers are now using tap water for domestic use and livestock courtesy of UKAID and its partners who built a solar pump station on the banks of Tuli River. They also sunk three submerged water pumps.
The development solved the villagers’ 20-year water crisis which saw them walking for long distances to fetch water.
The Mashaba 99 Kilowatt solar pump station in Gwanda South built by Practical Action, SNV and Dabane Trust and their European Union sponsors has also started supplying water to three irrigation schemes, a business centre, a clinic and two schools.
Efforts are also underway to connect the newly constructed Mlambapheli Border Post to the grid for pumping of water from Shashe River. Gwanda having suffered such severe damage during the storms, villagers are staring a tough time ahead during the dry season and tap water for villagers is the only panacea to the water problems.
Miss Nkanya Nyathi who grew up in the water shortages era until she finished her O-levels in 2015 said tap water brought a sign of relief to Ntalale villagers who were hard hit by excessive droughts.
“We are very grateful for this project. It brought us a better life. This is my first time to get water at our doorstep. We were used to travel kilometres to Tuli River to fetch water for domestic use. If only they could spread such kind of projects to all villages in Gwanda water problems will be a thing of the past,” said Miss Nyathi.
According to a report compiled by Zinwa on funds needed to repair the Gwanda dams over
$500 000 should be raised which is a tall order to the already burdened Central Government which is also looking at other national projects that were affected and are in the same predicament. Gwanda Civil Protection Unit chairperson and acting District Administrator, Mr Judge Dube said they were looking into ways of raising funds for the repair of the dams.
“We have approached a number of private partners whom we work with. However, the dilemma we are having is that they have no such budgets of emergency in their plans. Most of them have promised to include us into their next budgets which may not be in the very near future. However, we will continue mobilising resources to repair the dams,” said Mr Dube.
He concurred that tap water is the solution for Gwanda water woes and with the abundance of rivers the idea is feasible.
Even according to history the civilisation of mankind started near the rivers. Men began establishing themselves from the Tigris, the Nile, and the Euphrates. Major rivers all across the globe played a vital role in evolution and development of mankind.
— @richardmuponde
