The Sunday News
Vincent Gono
THE aphorism “water is life”, has for too long remained little more than just a carefully crafted catch-line for those that are into water conservation, with a good majority having no appreciation of what it really means.
This was so because water was not so much of a problem in the past, both in towns and in rural areas. The only difference was that of distance to the nearest water source – where in urban areas the taps were always running while in the villages youthful women would converge on a community well or a borehole where they would form a beeline back home with buckets full of the precious liquid.
This was long before climate change had become apparent and more pronounced. When drought was not so very common and when food insecurity at family level was attributed to nothing more than indolence and lack of planning.
With time however, the phrase ceased to be one concocted for motivating. It became real. People began to appreciate it more. It all began to make sense as water scarcity became more common than before.
Taps no longer easily allow a gush of the colourless liquid at the slightest opening turn. Village wells and boreholes in the countryside began to run dry before the next rain season. Cattle and other domestic animals began to succumb to the lack of water and women now walk painful distances to the nearest water source.
Water scarcity became an understood reality and everyone across all age groups started having an equal appreciation and the maxim “every drop counts” became meaningful. Its unavailability forced indebtedness even to toddlers as they could no longer be allowed on the toilet sit after every meagre meal while in severe cases classes have been suspended in schools.
Those that have been affected by water scarcity attest to the heavy weight of the burden. Suffocating dry spells over the past couple of years where the sun would rise with an unrestrained vengeance, licking every drop of morning dew and giving nothing in return have seen communities in semi-arid regions of the country grappling with severe water shortages.
Mwenezi district in the sprawling Masvingo Province is one such place where water shortages have become as common as the droughts that come with it. Except for a few pockets, that have wetlands, the district experiences a fairly low total annual rainfall and is subject to perennial droughts. The district is naturally a cattle area and falls under ecological Region 5.
Those that are keen on practicing crop farming are always advised to grow small grain crops that do very well in dry areas rather than maize. But basically both people and livestock are at the mercy of the water crisis, largely attributed to climate change.
Coping with cyclical droughts has become a way of life for many a folk in Mwenezi district where nearby boreholes have either broken down or dried up due excessive use owing to recurrent dry spells forcing families to spend part of their productive time looking for water.
The previous rain season was however, a lot more different as record breaking rains pounded the country and the district was no exception. It received a fair amount of rainfall that regrettably did not give everyone good yields.
And due to the persistent dry spells often experienced in Mwenezi, when water conservationists chant, “every drop counts”, villagers in the district and many such drought stricken areas in Zimbabwe and even in town hearken. They can relate.
Adapting to water scarcity was however, an uncommon phenomenon. The villagers had no idea how to skirt around their problems. Their incapacity to adapt to water shortages came to a halt thanks to the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund for Enhanced Community Resilience and Sustainability (ZRBF-ECRAS) that is funded to the tune of US$100 million and is supported by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Swedish Embassy, European Union, UNDP and the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office.
With the help of a ZRBF-ECRAS villagers in Mwenezi and neighbouring Chiredzi district which is equally arid no longer talk of water scarcity with the past subdued face. They now do so with glowing faces as they have been taught rain water harvesting techniques to alleviate their plight.
In Mwenezi and Chiredzi, the villagers have been supported in building resilience which is the ability to adapt, cushion, bounce back better and move on from the effects of shock and hazards in a manner that protects livelihoods and recovery and supports sustainable transformation through a US$9.7 million implemented by Care International, Plan International and ICRISAT.
Fisheries, biogas, poultry, goat projects, orchards, community production of stock feed, small grains cropping, solar powered gardening and water harvesting are part of the resilience projects that are being undertaken with each community responding to its own needs.
In Mwenezi where gardening was almost impossible with water from community boreholes that often dries up, rain water harvesting was part of the identified projects. Rain water harvesting is the process of collecting water from surfaces on which rain falls, filtering and preserving it for later use. A villager Mr Lloyd Shumba of Dungwe village under chief Negari in Mwenezi has through the assistance of ZRBF-ECRAS built a 10 000-litre rainwater harvesting tank at his homestead, which he says has made a lot of difference to his life.
Adjacent to the asbestos-roofed house at his homestead, the cement tank is connected to a gutter on the brim of the roof which directs every drop of rain water that lands on the roof into the reservoir. The erratic rainfall that typifies Mwenezi district may not be enough for extensive cropping, but if harvested can go a long away in quenching the thirst of village folks.
“We have not known water shortages here since I built this tank courtesy of ZRBF-ECRAS project. The 10 000 litres usually last us a number of months depending on usage. It may actually last longer, if we chose not to share with some of our neighbours,” he said.
Before construction of the tank, Mr Shumba said his family would make several trips daily to fetch water for domestic use from the nearest borehole.
“It’s far much better now. The burden is far less. My family no longer need to walk those long distances often. They go only go there to fetch drinking water maybe once a week. For other purposes we rely on water from the tank. We have even set a thriving gardening project and we now get fresh vegetables without forking a cent,” he said.
Even with the tank guaranteeing him adequate water for domestic use, Mr Shumba knows the importance of using the precious liquid sparingly.
“We have to conserve the water because if we don’t it won’t last us long. I always monitor how everyone uses water from the tank to ensure that it takes us far,” he said.
He said the success recorded thus far was evidence that communities in drought-prone areas needed to adopt the technique in order to adapt to climate change effects.
“These tanks are cheap such that a person can, with their own resources, build their own. This is just an example which we hope other communities will emulate,” he said.
Chief Negari weighed in saying there was no irrigation scheme in his area to talk about but efforts through ZRBF-ECRAS have provided all the water humanity could ever need as communities were harvesting what was given to them by nature.
“Water-harvesting at community level lessens the burden on both local and central Governments and ensures that communities have access to water for drinking and for gardening,” said chief Negari.
