TATENDA CHIKARA IN MASVINGO
At least 20 000 boreholes will be drilled in Chivi district, Masvingo Provincee this year, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Resentlement Minister, Anxious Masuka has said.
He made the remarks at the recent commissioning of water supply rehabilitation works in Chivi.
“…30% of the population is in towns and the 70% that is in rural areas are going to benefit from the Presidential rural development program which will see each village benefiting from 20 000 boreholes,” Masuka said.
The development comes after Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube allocated ZWL$24bn for water development in the 2022 National Budget.
Over the past few years Chivi district had been experiencing serious water challenges.
ZINWA board chairperson,Bongile Ndiweni, who spoke at the same event said: “The water challenges which have been experienced in Chivi and which the water rehabilitation works sought to address are well documented. A number of areas would go for days without water while some properties were not reticulated as well.
“However, following the successive rehabilitation of the water supply which included the construction of a filter tank, rehabilitation of the old plant, construction of the clean water pumping main and doing the rehabilitation extension a total number of 612 households directly benefited from water production which had plunged to as low as 11 980 cubic meters per month in February of 2021 and has since risen to about 45 510 cubic meters as of September 2021.”
Eng Ndiweni added: “This means that more people are now getting more water in a development that should help insulate our people from water borne diseases while enabling social economic development in Chivi.”
