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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Features Correspondent
For years, villagers in Manica Bridge under Chief Mutasa have yearned to utilise the land they have, but they have faced challenges in accessing water to carry out their farming activities.

Although the area has good soils, water sources have been scarce.

Electricity or solar-powered pumps would have made it easier for villagers to irrigate their crops, hence enhance productivity in line with the Government’s thrust to increase utilisation of land towards improved food security. But most of them could not afford it.

With close to 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa living without electricity, rural communities have been the most disadvantaged group despite efforts by Governments to invest in rural electrification. Zimbabwe has a huge demand for electricity which is yet to be met and close to 50 percent of the population still has no access to power.

In 2002, the Government established the Rural Electrification Fund (REF) to facilitate the rapid equitable electrification of rural areas in the country, thereby promoting rural development and uplifting of lives of rural Zimbabweans. REF has electrified more than 10 000 rural institutions since 2002.

But for households, the rate still remains low as the majority of the folk have not been able to afford bringing electricity into their homes from those institutions that have been electrified.

Energy Deputy Minister Magna Mudyiwa recently said the provision of electricity in the rural areas would no doubt lead to the empowerment of rural communities, alleviate poverty, build capacities and create employment leading to sustainable development and social equity.

“Many other benefits will accrue, among them the reversal of urban-rural migration and economic activites in downstream industries,” he said.

Dangarembga villagers at Manica Bridge will ride on the goodwill of one family that decided to invest in the installation of electricity at its homestead.

By no means an easy feat, the family paid for the 2.5km power lines from the nearby business centre as well as the 25kv transformer with a capacity to power at least 25 homes.

While the initiative was originally meant as a personal development undertaken by a family, the benefit to the community cannot be denied.

With electricity, the community can venture into income generating projects such as irrigation and boost food security.

Mr Kevin Dangarembga said the family had undertaken the electrification project as it wanted to seriously pursue farming activities.

“Before now, we were using a generator and solar but because diesel is expensive and scarce, we could not sustain it. The solar system we had was too small for the activities we had planned since we needed water to support our home use and farming activities. We realised this would not only benefit us as a family, but it the whole community. We have seen other communities that have electricity and are doing good farming projects and we asked ourselves why can’t we do it as well? All that is needed is for villagers to come together so that we can utilise this resource wisely,” he said.

Mr Dangarembga said they already had a pig project going and were looking at growing it as well as goat and chicken projects. They are also targeting to increase the area they have under maize and other crops.

One of his neighbours, Mr Phillip Mutsikamahwe said he had been trying to electrify his home for seven years but could not afford to do it.

He said most of his projects had stalled as a result.

“For seven years I have been trying to have electricity at my homestead but I could not do it. All thanks to one family that has been selfless, I can now get the electricity from close by and start reviving my farming projects. If we as a community can improve productivity, we will definitely contribute to the development of the country,” he said.

Village head Mr Collins Dangarembga said the development was in line with Government’s initiatives to ensure rural communities have access to electricity.

“President Mnangagwa has always been calling for electricity to reach the rural areas and today this has happened. We believe that once more homes in the vicinity are powered, cutting down of trees will be minimised.

“Those who can drill boreholes can use electricity to pump water.

“We are now seeing development in the rural areas and although it will take time for more homes to get on the grid, we will begin seeing development soon.

“Every development starts small and we are happy with this one,” he said.

The future definitely looks bright and electricity has given the village a better chance to fight poverty and improve their way of life.

In most rural areas there is still heavy reliance on biomass such as wood-fuel for energy in rural areas, something which causes massive deforestation.

Rural communities in Zimbabwe meet 94 percent of their cooking energy requirements by using traditional fuels, mainly wood-fuel, and 20 percent of urban households use wood as the main cooking fuel.

For this reason, unsustainable wood-fuel use patterns have been blamed for driving deforestation.

Estimates are that deforestation has been high in the country, peaking at 330 000 hectares of forests destroyed between 2010 and 2014.

Without electricity, deforestation through human activities such as the clearing of land for agriculture, tobacco curing, infrastructure development and household use of wood, is still a major issue in the country.

Addressing rural energy needs and the underlying factors that are affecting rural electrification and renewable energy technologies could have a positive impact on agricultural production and economic growth in general.

The installation of the solar system in rural farming communities can help people make significant savings on energy costs, while at the same time promoting a cleaner environment.

This model provides some useful insight on what can happen if the decentralisation of electricity generation is taken boldly as a strategy to resolve some of the country’s pressing energy problems.

All that is needed is to create a better investment climate and stronger local community and government capacity to scale up such a model.

Access to electricity is key to the success of Vision 2030 and other goals on energy, education, health, food security, industrialisation and an improved quality of life.

Moves to support rural electrification are key to helping the majority of the poor to access energy as well as to attain the country’s Sustainable Development Goals on energy, health, education, food security and a sustainable environment.