adminPatience Mutsiwi, Midlands Reporter
ZIBAGWE Rural District Council has sunk 233 boreholes under a Unicef water and sanitation hygiene (WASH) initiative in a development that has ensured the provision of safe water for villagers.
The RDC’s chief executive officer Mr Farayi Machaya said the partnership with Unicef started in 2013.
He said toilets have also been constructed in schools and villages under the programme.
“As from 2013 up to the present day we have managed to sink and rehabilitate 233 boreholes in Zibagwe rural area. We managed to rehabilitate 20 boreholes in each and every ward and we installed a solar powered water pump in the Dendera area of Silobela which is supplying water to clinics, schools and about 250 households,” said Mr Machaya.
“Villagers are planting crops all year round using this solar pump and this has reduced food shortages.”
He said as part of efforts to eradicate open defecation, every household in 10 wards had a toilet built as part of improving hygiene.
“We have also built 54 toilets at different schools in ward 16 and ward 18 which has transcended to different households in 10 villages in an attempt to improve hygiene in the district,” he said.
Mr Machaya said the district has since trained community members as environmental health officers.
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