Clean Source of Water

A brief story on my personal experience that portrays water crisis in my community

It was in December 2019, when I thought of visiting my homestead for Christmas holidays in Serima, Gutu district. I looked around my community and realised things were “bad”. Yes, as you can imagine, apart from happy greetings with family and friends, my attention was caught by women, men and children walking up and about in dirty, ripped clothing, clearly malnourished. Despite the smiles on their faces caused by the joy of meeting with a long lost relative or friend, the land was dry, dusty and very crusty.

Looking around their yards, no green plants were in sight. As I sat with my people, I requested some drinking water. That’s when it hit me that there was a water crisis in my village. The water was milky brown with some particles, some moving. It was a tough decision for me to make, whether to throw the water away or drink. But of course, I had to be smart and polite about it but not drink it.

On realising how bad the situation was, I decided to embark on some random visits to most of my folks and friends in the village to get full and authentic information on the magnitude of the water crisis in the area. People narrated their ordeals of having to walk up to 4 km or more to get water (which is not safe again) regardless of how sick or old they are. People used to make use of cow drawn carts to carry water, but not an more as all cows were attacked by a disease from 2018-2019. Most man-made wells that were in use at most homesteads, that go for my homestead as well, had all dried up because they were dug shallow from the beginning, measuring about 16 meters in depth.

I realised there and then that with the increasing threats imposed by climate change to water availability and supply, there was a need for a different approach. I found myself zoning out as I looked at all the natural resources around and abundant land just waiting to be utilised for the creation of safe and quality water. It was an ‘AHA’ moment for me!

What if I used my land that I had just inherited from my father to drill borehole water for community water consumption? My late father in my younger years always told me he wished for me to make something big out of the land which is 5 hectares. It clicked in my mind, to take initiative and motivate a ‘sponsored/funded water project’. I envisioned my family and the whole community having safe water to drink.

The above have made it necessary for me to consider making an initiative towards fundraising for clean and safe water for my community that could also benefit the other communities at large. I wanted to reach out and let you know that I’m fundraising to embark on a Water project in Zimbabwe in my village.