$50k borehole rehab to improve water supplies

WATER supplies are set to improve drastically in Chivi District as council has started drilling and rehabilitating nearly 40 boreholes under a project expected to cost about $50 000.

Chivi Rural District Council is using internally generated resources for the project.

The council’s chief executive Mr Tariro Matavire said the project would improve the availability of water in rural communities.

“We have already bought the required materials to rehabilitate at least 30 boreholes across Chivi rural, while we also have acquired equipment to drill six new boreholes in selected parts of the district,” he said.

“We have been engaging in these programmes for years because Chivi is always facing water problems. This year we are going to spend more than $50 000 from council coffers on the project.”

Mr Matavire said the boreholes would be drilled using revenue raised from ward development levies, saying communities who pay up their levy arrears would be the first to benefit from the boreholes.

He said the boreholes would not only assist the villagers, but also their livestock.

Mr Matavire said council would make sure that in the long run the district had functional and regularly maintained boreholes to improve the water situation for the more than 120 000 villagers in the district.

Chivi RDC, he said, would make sure that all communities in the district benefited through irrigation from various dams such as Bindamombe and Muzhwi, that were largely under-utilised.

He said the construction of Tokwe-Mukosi Dam in the district had enhanced prospects of large-scale irrigation development that would open agricultural opportunities for the Chivi rural folk.