Brighton Chiseva
NYIKAVANHU–While people in some parts of Masvingo are praying for rains for their crops and livestock, teachers and nurses at Nyikavanhu Primary School and Clinic respectively are waiting to harvest it from their roofs for all domestic uses or risk forking out money every day to buy the precious liquid from local villagers.
Sources said the school and local clinic have no other alternative source of water and rely on Zimbabwe National Authority (ZINWA) controlled pipeline which is always down due to mechanical and technical challenges and the two institutions have gone for close to six months without regular clean water.
Two other alternatives are a river which is about 2 km away where they dig holes on the river bed (Mufuku) or a borehole which is about 3.5 km away with rusty and salty water.
Teachers and nurses at Nyikavanhu primary school and clinic are forced by the situation to buy water from local villagers who ferry the water using scotch carts.
Contacted for comment, school head Johnson Mawuruse could neither confirm nor deny the crisis but said he was not allowed to speak to the media.
“I am not allowed to speak to the media, you can contact the Provincial Education Director (PED), she is the one authorized to speak on our behalf,” said Mawuruse.
However, one teacher who spoke to TellZim News on condition of anonymity confirmed the development as she said they were buying a bucket at a cost of R6 – R10 or risk fetching from a river which is about 2 km away.
The teacher said they are only relieved when it’s raining where they get water from their roofs and store for some days.
“We have a situation here, we used to rely on ZINWA but their pump and pipes are always down. Now the two sources of water we have now is a river which is about 2 km away and a borehole which is about 2.5 km from the school.
“However, the borehole has salty water and is rusty so we have no option except to buy from the locals who fetch using scotch carts from other better sources. We just pray that it rains regularly so that we harvest from our roofs,” said the teacher.
The local councilor Johannes Bangweni also confirmed the crisis but was quick to say ZINWA was fixing the problem.
“Yes the school and clinic rely on water from Zinwa. However, there are faults along the line but I have seen a ZINWA vehicle and I am sure that they are going to fix the problem soon,” said Bangweni.
The teachers blamed local leadership saying they have raised the water crisis challenge with the councilor and MP but nothing is being done to address the problem.
“We have approached our local leaders with the idea of them facilitating the drilling of a borehole at the school but nothing has materialized so far. The MP promised to fix the problem several times but we are still suffering,” said another teacher.
Efforts to get a comment form the local MP Claudius Maronge were futile as his cell was unreachable by the time of writing.
The school had proposed a US$ 5 levy per learner to raise funds for a borehole but some parents refused and the idea was later abandoned.
