820 boreholes drilled under Presidential programme
MORE than 800 villages countrywide have so far benefited from the boreholes being drilled by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) under the Presidential Rural Development Programme.
As at April 27, 2023, a total of 820 boreholes had been drilled across the country’s eight rural provinces as the programme gathers steam. So far 83 have since been successfully equipped with solar systems and bush pumps.
Under this programme, Zinwa is set to drill and equip a borehole for each of the country’s 35 000 villages by 2025. Besides giving the villages and their residents a clean, adequate and safe water supply, the boreholes will provide water for the villages to establish commercial horticulture gardens, orchards, poultry and fishery projects.
In a statement yesterday, Zinwa corporate communications and marketing manager Mrs Marjorie Munyonga said of the 820 boreholes 67 were drilled in Matabeleland North, 80 in Mashonaland East, 89 in Manicaland, 147 in Mashonaland Central, 97 in Mashonaland West, 84 in the Midlands, 76 in Matabeleland South and 180 in Masvingo Province
“The boreholes will also provide water to meet the villages’ drinking water needs as well as water for dip tanks and other needs,” she said.
Five commercial horticulture gardens have
since been successfully set up in Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, Midlands and Mashonaland Central.
ARDA and AARDS will help in the management of the gardens, in which the local communities will be producing crops for sale and share proceeds.
Moreover, the idea behind the community gardens is in trying to establish nutrition hubs for villagers whilst generating income for their communities and in turn mitigate the problem of high unemployment.
The community horticulture gardens will be focused on tallying production levels with market demand and AMA will assist in conducting market surveys plus crafting sustainable business models and market linkages for farmers so that they can enjoy competitive producer prices on the market.
Work on the establishment of six more gardens is underway in Mt Darwin, Mashonaland Central, with full establishment expected in the coming week.
The programme was mooted to aid rural development and as a way of empowering rural communities in the areas of food security, poverty alleviation and employment creation.
In the execution of this life transforming programme, Zinwa is working with other Government agencies that include ARDA, AMA, Department of Irrigation, Tobacco Research Board and AARDS.
The development also comes after President Mnangagwa last year embarked the Presidential Borehole drilling schemes to provide clean water to urban areas after councils have failed to provide potable water for residents.
The programme also dovetails with the President Mnangagwa’s vision as stated in the Zanu PF 2018 election manifesto on water and sanitation that said the Second Republic will, inter alia carry out a national rehabilitation programme of all water purification plants.
The provision of water remains a cornerstone in the attainment of an upper middle income economy by 2030.