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Martha Leboho Herald Correspondent
At least 1 700 villagers from Chizungu Village in Mberengwa are benefiting from a $45 000 solar piped water project installed by Oxfam Zimbabwe and its partners.

The Chizungu piped water scheme was completed in October last year.

The scheme will service the local community, including Mwanezi Primary School, Chizungu High School and Mwanezi Clinic.

The clinic serves about 4 686 people, with nine staff members and an average of five waiting mothers at a time.

There are 672 children and 27 staff members at Chizungu High School, while Mwanezi Primary School serves 872 pupils.

The primary school has a staff complement of 27.

Speaking during a tour of the project recently, Oxfam Zimbabwe humanitarian programme manager Mr Joel Musarurwa said the organisation was on a hygiene drive to reduce incidents of water-borne diseases in Zimbabwe.

Research

“We, as Oxfam Zimbabwe, are on a hygiene project and we have built and rehabilitated 113 boreholes in Masvingo, Gutu and Mberengwa districts,” he said.

“There are four solar-powered schemes to be managed by the villagers in these areas.” Mr Musarurwa said the organisation had also carried out research for similar projects before choosing beneficiaries.

“We do assessments on water and sanitation schemes, which is in the ZimVAC report, then we engage in water and sanitation schemes,” he said.

“These help to reduce diseases and to promote hygiene.”

Chairperson for Chizungu Piped Water Scheme Mr Feli Makanda said the project came at the right time, as their borehole pump had been washed away by floods in January last year.

“We really needed this scheme as our old pump had been washed away during the cyclone-induced floods in January,” he said.

District water and sanitation sub-committee chairperson Mr Gwakuka Servious said the programme aimed to alleviate the spread of water-borne diseases in the area.

“This project was embarked on with the aim of alleviating the spread of diseases through the use of clean water and sanitation,” he said.

Environmental health officer in the area Mr Kudakwashe Simango applauded the initiative.

“This scheme is a necessity to the community as it will help at our local clinic, schools and the villages who now have safe potable water,” he said.