Members from 80 households dug 200 metre trenches from the school to the village to ease the prevailing pressure on the settlement’s single borehole.
Annie Mavere, director of Simukai Trust, told The Zimbabwean in an exclusive interview that the initiative was necessitated by the acute shortage of a reliable water source for the village’s 200 families.
“The single borehole could no longer serve the growing village population, hence the initiative to install the tapped water system. Volunteer villagers did the manual labour and the Trust purchased some 34 galvanised pipes for the main water supply,” said Mavere.
She added that an additional 350 pipes needed to be purchased. To achieve this, each family will contribute $50 towards the price and transport costs.
Mavere said that villagers took the initiative by making an initial contribution of $15 each to kick-start the project last October. The first phase was completed in December 2014. If everything goes according to plan, the project will be complete by April.
“Since monthly water bills have to be paid to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, we decided that individual water meters would be the best option. This will avoid squabbles in the event of some beneficiaries defaulting on payments,” said Mavere.
According to Mavere, donor assistance towards the ambitious project is more than welcome, as a huge amount is required to see the scheme through.
It is estimated that for water to reach all targeted homesteads, a 2,000 meter trench will need to be dug. Goromonzi Primary School will also need to be paid a $1,000 water connection fee.
Most of Zimbabwe’s rural households rely on boreholes sunk by government and donor communities such as UNICEF, among others. Most existing boreholes do not function due to poor maintenance.
Over 70% of Zimbabwe’s population live in rural areas, where the need for improved access to water, sanitation and hygiene is critical.
Unconfirmed statistics suggest that 42% of the rural population practice open defecation, thereby exposing communities to the risk of epidemics such as cholera and typhoid.
The rural WASH programme, bankrolled by the United Kingdom and others, does assist with the rehabilitation of existing water and sanitation infrastructure, building of new infrastructure and the launching of innovative sanitation projects in the most under-served districts of the country.
Post published in: News