Luveve-born philanthropist brings water closer to homes

Ngqwele Dube, Sunday News Correspondent
READING about an unfolding crisis at Bulawayo’s Luveve suburb while he was at his home in the United States moved Mr Innocent Hadebe to donate to a Go fund me page that was raising funds for victims of a dysentery outbreak in June 2020.

As he followed the page, he realised it was not gaining traction and seeing the urgency of the crisis, he decided to start another fundraising effort.

“I always follow events at home and Luveve being the suburb I grew up in, I read any news about the area. The whole issue touched me and I made a donation but I realised that a single effort is not enough and I told myself to give it a shot and maybe the contacts and networks I had, would come on board and support the initiative.

I was delighted that two weeks later, I had managed to raise US$16 000 and while at the time I didn’t clearly have an idea of how the money will be spent, provision of safe and clean water emerged as an important and long-term goal that I decided to focus on,” says Mr Hadebe.

Growing up in Luveve suburb, Mr Hadebe did not imagine he would one day be reading about residents dying from water-borne diseases. However, the perennial water crisis in Bulawayo resulted in suburbs going for days without tap water while sewer bursts became the order of the day.

The resultant motivation from being supported in the initial Go Fund Me campaign saw him dream big and come up with the idea of setting up a filtration plant that would deliver ready to drink clean and safe water closer to residents. The idea gave birth to the Lot Water Project that has so far built three boreholes and is on its way to building three more before the end of the year.

“At first we thought we would just build a borehole then have a plant but as we enquired we realised we would need a constant supply of water and this would need a network of water sources. So it has become a long-term project, between three to five years, that will cost around US$600 000 and we need to build more boreholes in the interim so that water supply to the plant is adequate,” said Mr Hadebe.

He engaged a South African-based company, Quality Filtration Systems (QFS) which came up with a project proposal for the plant. In an earlier interview, Zimbabwe-born QFS director, Miss Musa Ndlovu said the proposed plant would take about 150m2 of land while having the capacity to dispense 1,5 million cubic litres water per day.

The setting up of the plant will also result in the creation of eight permanent jobs that includes six operators, a maintenance technician and one supervisor. The first solar-powered borehole built by the Lot Project is located in Luveve close to Masina Beer Garden and initially faced security problems with thieves getting away with solar panels, which were replaced along with the setting up of an alarm system.

The surrounding community requested the allocation of land from Bulawayo City Council to set up nutritional gardens which they were allocated. One of the community leaders, Mr Ndaba Ngoma said they felt having gardens close to free water sources would provide them with vegetables and crops throughout the year.

“We rely on our gardens for vegetables to supplement those we buy but we are also wary of the water bills. So setting up gardens would ease the pressure on the bills while also giving us safe water,” he said.

The second borehole was built at Amakhosi Grounds in Gwabalanda while a fortnight ago, Mr Hadebe was in the country and commissioned the Lot Project’s third solar-powered borehole at Cowdray Park Primary School in Cowdray Park.

Speaking during the commissioning, Luveve Member of Parliament, Hon Stella Ndlovu said it was imperative for the community to jealously guard such infrastructure as it was an asset to the whole community.

“My plea to communities that receive such kind of infrastructure is to guard it because tomorrow you are the one that will come looking for water. We should desist from selfishness that drives us to take community property and make it our own. Hadebe has made a great effort in coming to provide these water sources and it is up to us as a community to ensure we sustain it and works for a long time,” she said, calling on more Zimbabweans in the diaspora to also remember their communities back home.

Working with the local community, Mr Hadebe said he realised the thrust to set up a water source at a learning institution was critical as it enabled students to learn agriculture without hindrance.

“Agriculture is the mainstay of our economy and I believe getting young pupils interested in the subject at an early age will see more turning to the trade. Catching them early is the way to go and as an organisation we are shifting our thrust to providing more water sources within schools but we are still going to ensure that communities have access to these water sources,” he said.

Mr Hadebe said their target is to build three more boreholes before the end of the year and potential sites include Luveve Primary School, Nzwananzi Primary, Roman Catholic Church and Fusi Primary.

Mr Hadebe, also joined Water Mission, a United States-based non-profit whose main aim is to provide safe and clean water in developing countries and disaster areas, which saw him visit Tanzania and learn more about the provision of safe water.

In Tanzania they visited refugee camps where Water Mission provides clean and safe drinking water to the those in need and also visited some local communities of Zeze, Kasulu and Dodoma.

The Lot Water Project also partnered with another NGO Ruwa to build a solar-powered borehole in Jericho, a village in South Africa’s North West Province last year but only officially commissioned the project last month.

Mr Hadebe is also a business leadership coach, mentor, coaching business leaders from Fortune 500 organisations to start-up organisations. He revealed he is ready to work with Zimbabwean companies and share this business knowledge to assist them in their operations.

An avid golfer, Mr Hadebe was born in Luveve and did his primary education at Fusi Primary before heading to Milton High School and he then did his apprenticeship at Shabanie Mine as a fitter machinist.

He moved to America in 1999 on a scholarship and soon after college he joined an Aerospace Organisation and rose through the corporate ranks.

Mr Hadebe is married to Soneni Dube, a Human Resources Leader for a Fortune 500 organisation, and they have three children.