Villagers in ward 2, Siganda, Bubi District are appealing for donors to assist them to rehabilitate one of their water supply dams as water woes persist in the area.
Most of the areas in Matabeleland are experiencing water problems following poor rains received in the past rain season.
The villagers have already started raising funds to reconstruct the dam.
In an interview with CITE, one of the villagers, Brighton Mandla Mpofu said the idea to raise funds towards the rehabilitation of the dam was inspired by some of the community members who are now based in South Africa.
“As villagers, we are contributing any amount so that we can reconstruct our water supply dam which supplies ward 2 and 7 known as ‘Idamu leskolo’ because it is situated next to old Siganda Primary School,” said Mpofu.
“The idea came with our brothers and sisters based in South Africa. Every year we lose livestock due to drought. Those based in South Africa are contributing R1000 per person or any amount whilst we contribute any amount as most of us are unemployed.”
He said due to water shortages their livestock is forced to travel over 15 km in search of water.
Mpofu said the community has resorted to crowdfund as they have not received any assistance from the government.
“Those in South Africa set up a committee that will be collecting money which will be channelled towards the dam construction. As a community we have resorted to reconstruct the dam ourselves because the government has failed to assist us,” he said.
Mpofu said the water crisis in the area is contributing to human -livestock conflict as they all depend on one source of water which are the few boreholes in the area.
“Even if we receive enough rains, it won’t help as the dams in the area are silted,” he said.
Meanwhile, Thembani Ndlovu who is based in South Africa added that more than 50 villagers based in South Africa are part of the project.
“At the moment everything is going on well, even though we were affected by the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions but the contributions are coming in,” said Ndlovu.
“We were hoping that the next rain season would find the dam ready but our funds are still limited at the moment as contributions are still coming through, once we have enough funds, we will then consult those with machinery to assist us with excavation of sand”.
