Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Monde community outside Victoria Falls city got a short in the arm after Wild Horizons and Rotary Club of Victoria Falls installed a solar powered community borehole for domestic water use.
The project is the initiative of a tourist Mr Dave Cope who visited the resort city and went on a village tour with Wild Horizons guides whereupon he noticed there were water challenges in Monde and donated more than US$20 000 for a water project.
Wild Horizons then partnered the Rotary Club and identify a strategic site after which drilling commenced in December last year and the borehole was completed last month.
Solar panels, a pump and a 1 000 litre tank have been installed and villagers are already accessing piped water.
The borehole currently can supply about 100 homesteads and up to 600 people, and has capacity to supply the whole of Monde if additional pipes are installed to direct water to neighbouring villages.
The project was commissioned last Friday.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Wild Horizons corporate affairs director Ms Barbara Murasiranwa said availability of water is an empowerment for the girl child.
“In October 2021 we had a guest who did a village tour and he decided he wanted to assist to bring water to the community. He asked for partnership and we decided it has to be a community project and this is why we came to Monde.
“The total cost is 22 000 including drilling a borehole and putting up six solar panels, cattle pens, water tank, and pump. We are excited because I know the girl child has now been empowered. Girls have been going far away to fetch water and would delay to go school hence this borehole will empower them now,” said Ms Murasiranwa.
There are few boreholes in communities around Victoria Falls because of the loam and terrain whereby one has to dig more than 100 metres to get to the water table.
Ms Murasiranwa said the project will include planting of fruit trees which will in future generate employment and income for communities through fruit processing projects.
The tour operator has drilled about 10 boreholes, paid school fees for 120 children and fed more 1 500 teachers and learners during lockdown in schools and communities outside Victoria Falls, said Ms Murasiranwa.
“We are so excited that we are ploughing back to the community. Tourists might come to town but it is the community itself that makes the tourism we want so we are part of this community and we are not going away,” she said.
On behalf of the Rotary Club of Victoria Falls Ms Bev Wirth said relationships established through corporate social responsibility are important for an organisation.
“We look forward to a fruitful friendship with the Monde community through many more projects,” she said.
Hwange Rural District councillor Shakani Mukoma appealed to villagers not to vandalise the property.
“We are very lucky as a community because some areas don’t even have a bush pump and people drink from the river. There are many projects that you have done for the community and we are grateful. You have given us life, water is life. As we talk our crops have wilted and you have brought us Plan B, with this water we will do gardening and my appeal to villagers is that let’s not fight over this resource but we should work together to make sure everyone gets it,” he said.
Headman Mr Skinner Ndlovu implored other tourism operators to emulate Wild Horizons.
“We are grateful to Wild Horizons and Rotary Club for this project. We have many tourism companies here but they don’t do like Wild Horizons. This borehole has capacity to supply the whole of Monde community and we should safeguard it.
“There was no borehole in this area save for a well which dries, so this borehole came at the right time and we appreciate. As a community we have to show our appreciation by doing the best we can to safeguard it,” he said.
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