adminMunyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Bureau
VUNGU Rural District Council has set aside $20 000 in next year’s budget to sink more boreholes in the district to increase access to safe and clean water by rural communities.
In an interview, Vungu chief executive officer Mr Alex Magura said there were communities that have no access to clean and safe water and the local authority was prioritising provision of safe water to rural communities so as to curb the spread and outbreak of diseases that breed under unhygienic environments as well as water-borne diseases.
Mr Magura said the local authority wanted to ensure that communities have access to clean and potable water.
“We have many communities that still do not have access to safe and clean water. Therefore we are looking at setting aside $ 20 000 for the drilling of boreholes.
However, we realise that it is not enough to cover all areas that have safe water challenges but it will go a long way in addressing such issues. We will continue to add on to the amount so that we provide clean and safe water to all communities,” he said.
This comes as the local authority is resuscitating two piped water schemes under the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programme being implemented by the Government and Unicef.
Shagare and Mlezu water programmes in Lower Gweru and Chiwundura respectively are being rehabilitated to ensure that villagers in the two areas have access to potable water.
Mr Magura said funding from Unicef has been reduced, which has slowed down the Water Sanitation and Health (Wash) Programme.
He said council has also started funding the programme to ensure that each household in the district has ablution facilities.
“We realise the programme (WASH) is doing a lot of good in terms of encouraging our communities to construct their own sanitary facilities.
“We want to continue with that and the intention is that we should be able to cover the whole district so that we will be able to say all our people have sanitary facilities,” he said.
Mr Magura said the local authority sought to ensure that the district becomes a free defection zone.
Vungu is one of the 14 small towns which have benefited under the Wash programme which has resulted in the upgrade of water and sewer reticulation.
derick.khumalo