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Church helps repair community boreholes

News
IN the face of poor service delivery by local authorities, a local church has undertaken to repair and maintain community boreholes.

IN the face of poor service delivery by local authorities, a local church has undertaken to repair and maintain community boreholes.

Own Correspondent

With many boreholes being sunk at the backyards of many households due to the persistent water shortages, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ charities division, have aptly come to the rescue of many households with boreholes in Harare’s eastern suburbs of Caledonia, Tafara and Mabvuku.

Obed Kwaronga, a resident of Tafara has welcomed the move saying: “This is a great and timely intervention by the church. As beneficiaries, we will not fold our hands as the church carries out this noble thing. We will give them the assistance they would want. What we want is a constant supply of water.”

The head of the working team in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ charities division, Masiye Mabundu said: “We have identified more than 150 households so far in Tafara with collapsing boreholes and we are helping them to repair them to ensure there is a constant supply of water.”

It explained how they are doing the work, Mabundu said: “We are constructing concrete slabs around the borehole.”

Like many other communities around the country that are hit by persistent water shortages, residents have been forced to sink boreholes as a supplementary water source for domestic purposes to alleviate the crisis.

Residents are concerned that local authorities seem not finding the solution to the water crisis.

With erratic water suplies, some residents have resorted to digging shallow wells.

Many such wells, particularly unprotected ones, have also been a danger to children.

Programmes manager of Water Alliance, a community-based organisation, Ruben Akili, commended the work being done by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

“A collapsed borehole is dangerous and this also means no water and if there is no water there is no future and providing such services to communities is a great work which should be highly commended,” he said.

A local councillor for ward 19, which covers Tafara and Caledonia, Joseph Rose, said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints project has a twofold benefit.

“The project strengthens durability that avoids collapse and unnecessary water loss through substituting temporary corrosive metal sheets for covers with solid and well-built protective bunds and concrete slabs,” said Rose, adding that such efforts should be complemented.