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Herald Reporter
Sweden yesterday gave US$1,6 million to improve access to safe water under the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF).
Priority will be on rehabilitating existing water sources.
Sweden’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Åsa Pehrson, who announced the grant said: “Covid-19 has heightened the need for hygiene and hence access to safe water.
With water sources already affected by unpredictable rainfall, the availability of water is key to protect farmers from losing the progress made over the past four years and mitigate their exposure to Covid-19.”
UNDP Resident Representative Georges van Montfort, who attended the grant ceremony said water had become a precious resource in much of Southern Africa and Zimbabwe was no exception.
“This additional support from Sweden allows us to invest in water for agriculture and livestock as well as in response to increased hygiene requirements due to Covid-19. As such, it addresses the immediate needs, while at the same time it lays the foundation for long-term development,” he said.
Zimbabwe received less than average rainfall in the last two farming seasons and as a result, around 5,5 million rural people and 2,2 million urban people were the hardest hit, needing assistance to obtain food until the next harvest.
The ZRBF is a multi-donor fund working with small-scale farmers in 18 vulnerable districts on building their resilience to such shocks and stresses.
Some of the key results achieved by the fund over the past four years include reaching 873 331 people with resilience building activities, of which 505 426 were women.
Other achievements were increasing women’s average household monthly income to $78,60 per month; ensuring that 80 percent of households now practise climate-smart agriculture and that 74 percent of the households now have access to a variety of foods.
Other members of the fund are the European Union, UK Department for International Development, Denmark and United Nations Development Programme.
Online Reporter