Villagers in some parts of Matabeleland South’s Mangwe district have appealed to authorities to rehabilitate malfunctioning boreholes in their areas to ease water shortages.
Several boreholes in areas like Madabe, Tjingababili and Tshitshi are not working, forcing villagers to walk several kilometres in search of water.
The crisis has been worsened by the El Nino-induced drought, with many other water sources drying up after they received poor rainfall inflows.
“We have two dams in the area, we have Mapukani Dam but it is almost drying up,” Sipho Moyo, a villager from Madabe said.
“Another dam is Karikoga, but it has dried up.”
Another villager, Mkhumbulo Mpofu said access to water was a challenge.
“The last significant rainfall we had was two years ago,” Mpofu said.
“We wish we had functional boreholes or proper irrigation systems to grow vegetables, maize, and tomatoes to sustain us.”
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Chief Tshitshi in Mangwe district said he was aware of the water crisis.
“They (authorities) are busy looking for solutions to the water problems,” Tshitshi said in an interview.—SHARON SIBINDI
