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Andile Tshuma Bulawayo Bureau
VILLAGERS in Kezi are appealing for more boreholes as they are drinking water from unsafe sources also used by animals.

Chief Nyangazonke of Kezi said they needed help so that people could harvest water during the rainy season.

“More efforts should be put into harvesting rain water. Having dams will save us all the hassles that we go through. It is just barely four months from the rainy season but some of our areas are already experiencing problems,” said the chief.

He decried the side-lining of traditional leaders by donors and other non-governmental organisations when donating or seeking information related to water and sanitation.

“A major problem is that even if donors come, they do not seek the opinions of traditional leaders who know better about an area,” he said.

The chief also bemoaned vandalism in some areas of Kezi.

“People destroy pipes from the dams and axe equipment, especially in new settlements. Now they are complaining that they are drinking from the same pools with livestock. You wonder why people do such things. They steal equipment and they are the same people complaining of poor service delivery. At the irrigation scheme near Kezi Centre they stole pipes, taps, tubes, and then complained when the facility stopped working. They could be benefiting. Sometimes people are their own enemies,” said the chief.

Mrs Anna Nkosi (63) of Hovi Village said she walks for 8km to Hovi River to fetch water as the stream that is near her homestead has unclean water.

“People wash in it, animals drink from it and there is no place where one can dig in the sand to try and get underground clean water. If we had a borehole, my life would be better,” she said.