The borehole at Nyamandlovu School is one of 15 drilled in the district. Mildred Sandi heads a local NGO that has worked with the UN to ensure that boreholes are sunk in this drought-prone area.
“When we came here I was shocked, amazed to see how people lived without proper drinking water for a decade, to a point some said we are no longer enjoying our conjugal rights because we have to bath after that. I wondered how people lived without water,” said Sandi.
People were walking up to 30km in search of water, and some had to work for those who had water in order to earn a bucket of water.
Nyamandlovu Secondary School wa without constant water supply since its establishment in 2000, until the UN’s Emergency Response Fund chipped in and drilled a borehole.
Qisani Ndlovu is a teacher at the school and he remembers the problems they had before. “It was difficult. We do not have accommodation for teachers in the schooI so teachers have to bring water from faraway homes.
I have to wake up daily at 4.30am, Monday to Friday. It is dusty here, winds blow heavily and when you happen not to block your nose, the flu you suffer from will not be bearable. It was very, very tough.”
Some of the boreholes that had existed before had failed due to negligence, after the commercial farmers who drilled them were thrown out under President Robert Mugabe’s land seizures.
The peasant farmers who took over the farms had no resources to maintain the boreholes, but the UN has renovated them.
One of the farmers is Emily Ncube. This 77-year-old woman has had to look after her four grandchildren ever since their parents succumbed to HIV and Aids.
With water now available she is able to plant vegetables near one of the boreholes. Her grandchildren now get the food they need to enable them to walk the five kilometres to school.
“My grandchildren assist and this has really helped me and all of them are now able to go to school with food in their stomach and we sell some vegetables to local villagers.”
The Matabeleland region has been marginalised since the country gained independence in 1980 The only time development is talked about is during election campaigns.
Through the borehole programme OCHA hopes to get water to all marginalised areas in Zimbabwe so as to improve the future of women and children.
Post published in: News