A Long Dry Season
By Ignatius Banda
MBERENGWA, Zimbabwe, Sep 9, 2010 (IPS) – Headmaster Njabulo Mpofu has
weathered long dry spells before, but the water troubles affecting his
school in the arid Midlands region of Zimbabwe are severe.
Experts say the water table is receding in the Midlands Province, with
groundwater disappearing deeper into the earth, threatening the lives of
both humans and livestock.
This is where the devastating 1990s drought saw skeletal cattle roaming the
scorched earth in search of water, while some villagers fled to the cities.
The continuing water scarcity, Mpofu says, has forced school children to
invest time in fetching water instead of attending classes, with villagers
also devoting more and more of their day to looking for water from new
sources further from their homes.
Mberengwa is one of many communities in rural Zimbabwe that is feeling the
impact of low rainfall in a country where the supply of clean water to both
rural and urban populations remains a huge challenge.
According to a 2004 MDG assessment, access to clean and safe drinking water
in Zimbabwe’s rural areas declined from 75 percent in 1999 to 68 percent in
2003.
While many in rural areas have long relied on groundwater – boreholes are a
familiar part of the infrastructure for schools like Mpofu’s – it is
becoming increasingly difficult to draw on this vital resource amid
challenges of both poor rainfall and poor groundwater exploration.
Even though millions across the region rely on groundwater, the Southern
African Development Community’s Water Division says there is generally poor
understanding in communities of how to manage this hidden resource.
SADC’S Groundwater and Drought Management Project conducted a baseline
survey in 2008 addressing groundwater issues in member states. It found that
despite the acknowledged potential of groundwater use to improve rural water
supply, its invisibility leads to a lack of sound decisions and resource
allocation that could lead to its improved use, development and management.
Sobona Mtisi, a researcher officer with the UK’s Overseas Development
Institute (ODI) says what has made it difficult to harness groundwater in
the arid Midlands region and other parts of Zimbabwe is that this resource
is not as readily available as previously thought.
There is growing recognition of falling water table levels caused by reduced
groundwater recharge from rainfall, Mtisi told IPS, but groundwater remains
a practical option – where underground geology permits: “Groundwater can be
harnessed from only 25 percent of the surface area in Zimbabwe as the other
75 percent is composed of hard rocks which make it difficult to extract
ground water,” he said.
Mtisi however added that rural water woes like that affecting headmaster
Mpofu’s school and surrounding villages can be adequately addressed through
clear policies that seek to provide long term solutions.
“Putting in place an effective policy and institutional framework that
promotes equitable access to water for different users to enhance long term
access to water,” Mtisi said. “[The] provision of low-cost water supply
technology could enable people living in arid and semi-arid areas to harness
water to points where they need it.”
For Mpofu’s rural school, life could be set to get even tougher with recent
projections by the country’s meteorological department that this could yet
be another drought year.
It is only when schools are closed for the term when pupils get a respite
from their water fetching errands, teachers here say.
The drought threatens big urban centres as well. The Bulawayo municipality
last month reported that the city’s supply dams were dangerously low because
of poor rainfall, despite previous projections that the last rains had seen
inflows enough to last the city for another three years.
In the past, acute water shortages have forced schools to close amid fears
of waterborne diseases like cholera.
Mberengwa villagers say they have been appealing for a dam to be built as a
long term solution.
“It is painful for us when there are rains but all is lost to run-off when
it could be saved by the dam,” said villager Titus Mguni.
“Our water problems are as old as the hills but we survive all the same.”
But dams demand money, and in a country where many development projects have
been stalled because of lack of funds, this could mean the underground water
will not be harnessed for use during dry years anytime soon.
Meanwhile, in the quiet Mberengwa hills desperate schools and villages
continue their search for oases of hope.
“The right to water for poor people should be enshrined in the country’s
Water Act, to ensure that the State makes it a priority to provide water to
poor people,” Mtisi said.