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Sydney Kawadza Senior Features Writer
Zimbabweans have a penchant to draw humour out of misery; hence the joke that women in rural Masvingo are balding because they carry water buckets over long distances.

The witty humour among the women in Masvingo rural cannot, however, mask the severe water shortages experienced in the province.

At the peak of the crisis, women travel approximately 8 kilometres to fetch water.

Some have to dig wells in dry river beds to get water for both domestic use and for their livestock.

“The past three years have been very bad due to the El Nino-induced drought.

“Most of the boreholes have also broken, so with all our water sources drying up we are forced to walk long distances to get to water sources.

“If you notice most of the women are going bald but it’s not natural, it’s because of carrying water on their heads for long distances,” Mrs Kerina Mushonga told a consultative meeting held in Masvingo City recently.

However, an Oxfam MoFA project in response to the worst El Nino-induced drought to hit the district in 35 years, has eased the situation.

The water, sanitation and hygiene programme (WASH) is in direct response to the challenges that had seen 29 percent of the 587 boreholes in Masvingo rural breaking down.

The calamitous situation has seen 18,4 percent of the total population facing water scarcity.

The project is supporting 2 100 villagers with access to potable water and training of pump minders, environmental health technicians while water point user committees have been established.

At least 30 boreholes have also been rehabilitated in the district with 10 pump minders and 20 environmental health technicians receiving training.

The programme has also established an additional 30 water point communities.

Headman Thomas Mafuzha from Zimoto Village in Ward 1 said a borehole serves at least 3 000 villagers.

Before the programme, he said, most of the boreholes had broken down.

“The borehole broke down three years after it was drilled and people would walk more than 8 kilometres for clean water.

“As the drought became worse some were forced to fetch water from unprotected wells exposing themselves to various diseases,” he said.

“Such intervention programmes are important because people suffer during times when drought prone areas do not receive enough rains.”

The headman, however, called for efforts to be enhanced to rehabilitate large water bodies for future water harvesting.

“Now that we have water from the boreholes we should look at such water bodies as the Dyaringa Dam which has been leaking for some years now.

“Such water bodies also help villagers to grow crops and for their livestock,” he said.

Ms Tendai Tavaruva from Zvehuru in Village 7 said having water at a short distance was empowering for women in the district.

“We have had boreholes that had become empty shells after breaking down for years and people would spend the better of the day looking for water.

“This compromised other activities in the homestead as we were forced to either walk long distances or use unprotected sources.”

She said with enough water sources, they can engage in other activities other than looking for water.

A recently trained pump minder, Ephraim Chikwama from Village 6 in Ward 9, said seven boreholes sunk in the area had brought relief to the community.

He said the training he received had ensured self-reliance for the villagers.

“We do not need to summon assistance when we have problems with the boreholes and it is such empowerment programmes that are necessary for the communities,” he said.

Chikwama said training programmes had removed the welfaristic approaches used by most non-Governmental organisations in Zimbabwe.

“Among the lessons we received was the three-tier maintenance system. That means the responsibility to look after the boreholes lies with all from the village, ward and district levels.

“We were also taught community-based management of our boreholes and this provides for unity among the people sharing responsibility for the boreholes.”

He said while the District Development Fund had drilled boreholes in the villages no one was supervising their maintenance.

“Training to repair the boreholes is very important and on top of that all pump minders received tool kits to use in their duties,” he said.

WASH is part of Oxfam’s Zimbabwe Joint Response programme which seeks to provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people affected by drought and food insecurity.

According to a ZimVac assessment in April 2016 more than a third of households had inadequate water supply for domestic use.

The assessment also noted that there were high salinity levels while collapsed boreholes exacerbated challenges in accessing water supplies for villagers.

Some of the key objectives of the WASH programme are to restore access to sufficient water of appropriate quality and quantity to meet basic needs.

This includes construction and rehabilitation of water points and treatment and water quality monitoring.

The Zimbabwe Constitution recognises the people’s right to food and water.

According to Section 77, individuals have a right to safe, clean potable water.

Government is also entailed to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within the limits of its resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.

The WASH programme also dovetails into the SADC Regional Water Supply and Sanitation Programme.

The programme is an integral component of the Regional Strategic Action Plan on Integrated Water Resources Planning, Development and Management.

It is also key under the focus area of Infrastructure Development Support which consists of projects or developments. These are aimed at improving the provision of water supply and sanitation to promote good public health, socio-economic development, regional integration and poverty alleviation.

The SADC RWSSP was developed in 2004 based on national and regional situation analysis of water supply and sanitation service provision in SADC Member States.

According to the regional grouping, the overarching aim of the SADC Regional Water Supply and Sanitation Programme is to help states to improve and fast-track the provision of safe water supply and sanitation.

This is also envisaged to contribute to socio-economic growth, poverty reduction, and regional integration among SADC Member states.

The United Nations, through Resolution 64/292, also recognised the human right to water and sanitation.

It acknowledges that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights.

The resolution, according to the UN, calls on States and international organisations to provide financial resources, help capacity-building and technology transfer to help countries, in particular developing countries, to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted General Comment No. 15 on the right to water with Article 1 stating that, “The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realisation of other human rights.”

Comment No. 15 also defined the right to water as the right of everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable and physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.

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