adminLea Mutanda
Government has drilled 200 new boreholes and rehabilitated 92 others countrywide in the past three months.
The exercise, done through the District Development Fund (DDF), is part of a project that has also seen the construction and rehabilitation of dams and irrigation schemes countrywide.
In September, President Emmerson Mnangagwa directed DDF to urgently intervene in assisting urban and rural authorities in the provision of clean water. This was after some areas, mainly Harare, had raised a red flag over challenges in supplying the city with water while in other provinces water sources had dried up.
Treasury has since availed $46 million for the borehole drilling and rehabilitation exercise.
DDF Water Supplies and Maintenance director Mr Edwin Toriro told The Sunday Mail that the parastatal had drilled and rehabilitated 292 boreholes.
“In September this year, the President ordered DDF to drill 600 boreholes in all provinces and to date we have managed to drill 38 boreholes in Harare, 13 in Bulawayo, 17 in Manicaland, one in Mashonaland Central, 12 in Mashonaland East, 22 in Mashonaland West, 11 in Masvingo, 37 in Matabeleland North, 36 in Matabeleland South and 13 in Midlands, bringing the total to 200,” he said.
“We still have outstanding works, but we are progressing well in all our water projects. We are left with 400 new boreholes and we are hoping to finish them next year.
“We also managed to rehabilitate a total of 92 boreholes countrywide. We faced challenges in some provinces, for example in Mashonaland West, Midlands and Mashonaland Central.
“We failed to rehabilitate and flush boreholes there because the provinces had no drilling units and in other cases the rigs were accident damaged.”
The flushing process involves blowing out of dirt and debris using compressed air.
Online Reporter