Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube
WATER challenges that have been bedeviling Dete community in Hwange district will soon be a thing of the past after the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) started drilling boreholes under the Presidential Rural Development Programme (PRDP).
Aqua Mart contracted by Zinwa started drilling a borehole near Dete Clinic this morning as Government targets to drill and equip 35 000 boreholes in the country’s eight rural provinces by the year 2025.
However, by afternoon Aqua Mart had stopped work and moved to another site outside Dete after drilling 90 metres deep and failing to get water.
Dete is a small community that grew near a railway depot on the edge of the Hwange National Park and has been facing perennial water challenges emanating from failure by Zinwa to pump enough water from its reservoir due to electrical faults, among other challenges.
This had forced residents to resort to using bush toilets, exposing themselves to possible attacks by wild animals.
Dete and the whole of Hwange and other places of Matabeleland North are dry region 5 areas whose water table is too low making borehole drilling a challenge.
Dete Residents Association chair Mr Douglas Mpofu who is also Zanu-PF Secretary for Environment in Hwange District Coordinating Committee said residents are grateful to President Mnangagwa for the initiative saying the borehole will go a long way is addressing water challenges in the dry Dete area.
He said residents had resolved to mobilise resources with each household contributing US$1 to drill a borehole for themselves and had raised US$300.
“Residents are happy and had been mobilizing money in an effort to drill a borehole. We had formed a borehole finance committee and our idea was to contribute something and approach donors with our own share and a number have been promising. We are happy that Government through the Presidential borehole drilling have heard our concerns.
“We identified five sites which we were earmarking for drilling and we hope once implemented this will permanently solve our water problems. We want all locations such as Soweto and Mtuya to have dedicated boreholes hence everyone is happy with this borehole drilling. They
sited the borehole near the clinic although we hear they stopped but we are grateful that we have been remembered,” said Mr Mpofu.
Hwange Rural District Councillor for Ward Stanley Torima urged the contractor not to abandon drilling so as to help the community. “Dete has perennial water problems so this Presidential project was a sigh of relief and people were happy. Stopping drilling will not be fair and we don’t want a situation where people will say the Presidential borehole project did not help.
“So these people should have surveyed first and at least understand that Dete is a dry area and they cannot expect to get water near the surface. A borehole was going to be a long-lasting solution to
people’s problems,” he said.
Zinwa has said a total of 820 boreholes had been drilled across the country’s eight rural provinces.
Boreholes are expected to provide water for villages to establishcommercial horticulture gardens, orchards, poultry and fishery projects as well as meeting drinking water needs.
-@ncubeleo
Online Reporter