adminSukulwenkosi Dube and Mashudu Netsianda Chronicle Reporters
A SERIOUS water shortage has hit several schools in Bulilima and Mangwe districts in Matabeleland South as the effects of drought continue to take its toll amid revelations that the Government has also dispatched a team to Zambia to speed up the importation of the remaining 137 000 tonnes of maize to avert starvation.
Investigations conducted by Chronicle indicated that Empandeni and Thekwane High Schools have been operating without running water for weeks as the water sources have dried up.
A visit by inspectors from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to Empandeni Mission Girls’High School on Monday revealed that the school mainly relied on a nearby dam for water supplies.
“The school is facing serious water challenges. Our main source of water that we have is a dam and we have since chlorinated the water so that it is safe for drinking. Most of the boreholes that we have in the school are now useless as the water table is now very low. Most of the boreholes cannot pump water anymore and we now rely on dam water.
We have two boreholes but they are not really efficient as they pump water at intervals,” said a school official during the visit.
When Chronicle visited the school some of the toilets in the school were in a deplorable state due to lack of water.
“Our toilets do not have running water and pupils are now using buckets to flush the toilets,” said the official.
Pupils said water challenges had created an unhygienic environment at the school.
“It is impossible to maintain clean toilets when there is no proper flushing system. We clean our own toilets and in the process of doing so we are exposing ourselves to diseases,” said a Form Three pupil.
She said accessing water was a challenge and they have to use the resource sparingly.
“In the morning we get access to borehole water but it is only for a specified period of time as the water is only opened for a short period and thereafter we can only access raw water.
“When the raw water does not come out completely we resort to filling buckets,” said the pupil.
The district education officer for Mangwe, Mr Headman Mpofu said a number of schools in the area have been affected by the prevailing water problems.
“The water table is very low and a number of schools have been affected with boarding schools being the worst hit. Bulilima Rural District Council’s chief executive officer Mr John Brown Ncube said the water supply situation at some schools was very bad. He said out of the 80 schools, only 43 had boreholes.
“This is a cause for concern as it is highly unhygienic and it is a health threat to pupils and their teachers,” he said.
Matabeleland South is the worst affected province in terms of drought resulting in serious food shortages.
The Government has stepped up efforts to avert starvation and a team has since been deployed to Zambia to work on modalities to speed up the delivery of the remaining maize that was imported from that country
The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) general manager, Mr Albert Mandizha, said the Government team was in Zambia to finalise the modalities to move the outstanding maize.
The Government recently imported 150 000 tonnes from Zambia to cover the food deficit and so far 13 000 tonnes have been delivered and distributed to some of affected areas.
“There is a team that we deployed last week to Zambia to finalise the modalities. We are very much aware of the plight of our people and we want to speed up the movement of maize.
“As soon as that consignment is released from Zambia, we will immediately distribute the maize to the areas where there is a food deficit,” said Mr Mandizha.
He said the worst affected areas were Matabeleland South and North, Masvingo, Midlands and southern parts of Manicaland. Parts of Mashonaland East and Central have also been severely affected.
Mr Mandizha said the country’s grain reserves are supposed to be 500 000 tonnes.
“The maize that we have imported from Zambia is not enough and we will continue to mobilise resources so that we are able to import more grain as our reserve is supposed to be 500 000 tonnes at any given time,” he said.
The country which requires about 2,2 million tonnes of maize annually, harvested just about 800 000 tonnes and the deficit has to be covered by imports.
Online Reporter