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Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
PROVISION of clean and safe water to thousands of people in rural areas in Makoni West constituency is gradually becoming a reality following the intervention of a parastatal to drill boreholes in most deserving areas to easy water shortages and mitigate climate change shocks.
Most rural communities in the district are severely affected by the impacts of climate change —with rainfall variability and increasing frequency and severity of droughts — severely reducing agricultural productivity and shortages of water resources.
Poor water quality is known to be the major cause of disease outbreaks and impact on health.
The Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has come to the rescue of some of the affected communities through drilling boreholes as part of its corporate social responsibility to build resilient communities and reducing the impacts of climate change.
Some of the boreholes were handed to beneficiary communities last Friday by POTRAZ Director-General, Dr Gift Machengete.
This follows a plea for assistance by Makoni West legislator and Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere.
Apart from the provision of the precious liquid, POTRAZ presented senior citizens, those living with disabilities and child-headed households with food hampers, blankets and mosquito nets.
Dr Machengete said the boreholes are meant to promote community health and ensure easy access to water supplies.
To ensure the sustainability of the boreholes, community water committees were entrusted to take full responsibilities of their management.
“As we work with the people, we always notice deficiencies in their wellbeing and as an institution, we have a social responsibility policy where when we identify areas that are lacking some of the basic things, we come in and assist.
“This year we have identified the drilling of boreholes as our contribution and in that vein we have identified areas where we will be drilling boreholes, including here in Makoni West.
“The project will be spearheaded in all the provinces because as POTRAZ, we believe that clean water is everyone’s right. As POTRAZ, we want to avail clean water to the community as we interact with them in our official mandate of ICTs.
“The target is to do over 30 boreholes across the country, and to other corporates, we say when you are dealing with communities, it is important to plough back and assist them. Good corporate citizens must support communities they operate in,” said Dr Machangete.
Dr Muswere thanked POTRAZ for assisting communities with boreholes, computer laboratories and addressing communication challenges in rural areas.
He appreciated the various interventions done by POTRAZ in Manicaland, which among other things, include drilling of boreholes at a number of schools, clinics and communities, computerisation of schools, establishment of Community Information Centres (CICs) and assisting the vulnerable in communities.
The beneficiaries were selected through community consensus.
Cde Lucia Chitura, the Proportional Representative in the House of Assembly for Makoni, said POTRAZ has worked hard to bridge the technological gap between rural and urban schools.
Chief Makoni said women and young girls are mostly affected by lack of water and boreholes.
Along with better access to water, the communities have also established gardens near them.
“The lives of the local communities have greatly improved as a result of enough water, healthy food and income generating projects from their vegetable gardens.
“They used to walk long distances to nearby water points and this is now a thing of the past. People would queue to get water, but at times some individuals would skip the queue resulting in conflicts,” said Chief Makoni.
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