VILLAGERS in Mangwe have called on the government to intervene and repair several boreholes that have become non-functional with the area facing severe water shortages.
The district has been ravaged by drought following poor rainfall experienced in the past two years while the situation comes at a time when Zimbabwe is facing an El Niño-induced drought.
A visit by Southern Eye to the district recently revealed that some villages in areas such as Madabe, Tjingababili and Tshitshi had no functioning boreholes with villagers forced to travel long distances to fetch water.
“We have boreholes but they are all dry. We are asking the government to intervene because as it is, we don’t even know what our councillor is doing. Even [for] our problems here, he doesn’t show up, we don’t know his duty.
“We have two dams in the area, we have Mapukani Dam. It has very little water, it will not sustain us and we walk longer distances to fetch water from it. Another dam is Karikoga which is totally dry,” a villager from Madabe, Sipho Moyo said.
Another villager, Mkhumbulo Mpofu said they were in a dire situation due to water shortages.
“The last significant rainfall we had was two years ago. We wish we had functional boreholes or proper irrigation systems to grow vegetables, maize and tomatoes to sustain us,” he said.
“People walk long distances in search of water, livestock strays for longer distances too in search of water (sic). This has resulted in some villagers losing their livestock.
- Villagers seek help as water shortage bites
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“We are calling on authorities to at least fix boreholes or sink new boreholes to alleviate water shortages because most water sources have dried up and what we have will not last us until December.”
However, Chief Tshitshi from the district urged the villagers to be patient, saying the political leadership is seized with the issue of providing water to the villagers.
“At the moment I heard that a pipe in Dilankombe is open and it is working. It is taking water to areas like Ngwanyana to Tshitshi.
“We didn’t get enough rain and I am assured that the people will get water even though water is a challenge, they will not sleep without water in their homes. As for the dams, they need serious attention,” he said.
