The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
VILLAGERS, learners and teachers of Majiji Ward 4 in Bubi district were all smiles as they converged to witness the commissioning of a solar water project that marked the end of the torturous exertion they used to endure in search of the precious liquid, bringing relief to more than 1 000 households in the semi-arid district.
The communities with joy written all over their faces testified to walking a distance of not less than five kilometres to the nearest water source which they often shared with wild and domestic animals.
Concern was however, raised on the issue of toilets where a number of villages still do not have safe places to relieve themselves with some villagers still at sixes and sevens on why they should build toilets “when they have dense bushes to camouflage them”.
The solar water project in Majiji which was funded to the tune of US$29 880 is going to service more than 300 homesteads while another one at Lukala in the same district that gobbled US$37 760 will service more than 700 homesteads.
The two solar-powered projects in the district are meant to provide safe drinking water to communities and were made possible courtesy of a United Kingdom based Non-Governmental Organisation called UK Natcom that funded the development under the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme.
Five reservoir tanks were set up and will supply 18 000 litres of water to Majiji Primary and Secondary schools as well as the community.
Villagers and teachers alike expressed their elation at the programme saying the days of waking up earlier than necessary to look for water were in the past as they can now access water that is safe at their doorsteps.
“We used to walk long distances to the wells, dams and even to the river to fetch water. The distances were punishment-like but we can’t do without water, so we just had to endure it despite the pain. Now water that is clean and safe has been brought to our doorsteps, we are happy and thankful to the donor,” said a villager Ms Nosizo Ndlovu.
Villagers told a story of excitement and pledged to ensure that the equipment was well taken care of so that they continue to enjoy the benefits.
Through song and drama, learners and parents expressed gratitude to UK-Natcom and the Government for prioritising the provision of clean and safe water to their communities.
Bubi District water and sanitation chairman, Mr Vusisizwe Ncube said it was good that the project was handed over to the community it belonged to urging a spirit of ownership among villagers to avoid vandalising the equipment that he said was computerised.
He said 154 boreholes were rehabilitated under the rural WASH programme but some have already dried up as the water table was low owing to low rainfall received in most parts of the country.
“For the first time in the district, we have state-of-the-art technology. An engineer can control it from the office. He can monitor its correct usage. This means it is more advanced than all other piped schemes,” he said.
He called on villagers to exercise hygienic living, emphasising the need for them to build toilets at their homesteads.
He said they were targeting 74 villages under the open defecation free (ODF) programme where they were encouraging people not to use the bush and said they were happy that they surpassed the target as there were now 129 villages who are no longer using the bush after heeding calls to construct toilets.
“However, the bulk of those that have built toilets are from the new resettlement areas. We want the communal areas to follow suit and built as many toilets as are possible.
“We have a challenge there as there are villagers who still do not understand why we are incessantly calling for construction of toilets. We have cases where villagers are asking us why we are concerned about where they decide to defecate, but the issue is not that we are just concerned for no reason, we are worried about the spread of diseases after one decides to relieve themselves where they want,” he said.
He added that in one village they were told that the area had a good bush where one could relief themselves without being seen compared to those in Harare and other provinces where there were no more trees to camouflage them.
The district schools inspector for Bubi Mr Kevin Njabulo Mathe said it was an exciting development as having water at the school meant teachers and learners’ lives were made easy as the supplementary feeding programme that was ongoing was exceedingly challenged by lack of safe water.
He added that the low cost boarding at Majiji Secondary was going to grow as water was now available at the school.
Bubi Rural District Chief Executive Officer Mr Partson Mlilo said the solar piped water project was a milestone development in the district that would improve people’s standards of living.
“People will now have clean portable water as opposed to drinking water from unprotected water sources such as dams and rivers where animals drink too. Now they will have time to do other productive work instead of spending much of their time in water queues and at few distant boreholes.
“We want to convey our gratitude to our partners for helping us put up such a wonderful water scheme. Let me also appeal to other donors and well-wishers that we still have many areas in the district that seriously need piped water schemes or even boreholes. Our dream is to have a drilling rig which we will use to drill boreholes,” said the CEO Mr Mlilo.
Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs Minister, Cde Richard Moyo, who was represented by the deputy director in his office, Mr Tapera Mugoriya said it was a welcome development that communities now have safe and clean water at their doorsteps in line with President Mnangagwa’s vision of having an upper middle income economy by 2030.
He said access to water was very critical in the fight against diseases and for general promotion of a clean environment.
He challenged communities to take advantage of such initiatives to foster development by being productive and called on communities to complement efforts of Government partners by building toilets.
“Besides using this water for domestic purposes, as a province we want to promote a commercial approach to the use of water. Schools should have small commercially run gardens that generate funds for development. You can’t be watching water pipes passing through your place while you are not being productive. We hope to be called one day to be shown some investments made from the proceeds of the garden project,” he said.
The Provincial Affairs Minister said it was disheartening that some NGOs were showing signs of lack of interest in developing resettlement areas but said Government would continue working with them and guiding them on development and where it was supposed to be prioritised.
He assured them that the people settled there were not illegal settlers and were not going to be moved anywhere.
“Those people are permanent. They are not going to be moved so NGOs should not be hesitant in developing those areas. Government will continue guiding them on which areas to develop,” he said.
He added that the schemes must be productive and strides should be made to grow business ventures around the schemes.
“We will work to ensure that we have communities with improved water and sanitation coverage with a view to reducing walking distances to water sources for both domestic and agricultural use,” he said.
Minister Moyo stressed the President’s mantra of putting politics behind and pursue economic development for the nation to progress.
Villagers and school representatives expressed their appreciation for the project with the headmistress of Majiji Primary School Mrs Rejoice Msakanda saying the school was now accessing safe water easily without walking long distances something that would make the school attractive to teachers.
She promised to safeguard the infrastructure from vandalism in order to avoid stalling development in at the school and in the community.
