Zimbabwe gets relief from water shortage

Whenever drought struck Marondera District in Zimbabwe, women and girls bore the heaviest burden, rising before dawn to embark on grueling journeys in search of the precious commodity.

Traditionally responsible for fetching water, they would often walk several kilometers under the scorching sun — a daily trek that robbed children of valuable school hours, limited women's economic opportunities and exposed families to unsafe water sources.

For decades, in drought-stricken Mashonaland East Province, successive dry spells, compounded by the devastating El Nino phenomenon, turned access to clean water into a daily struggle for survival.

Today, the sound of water flowing from newly drilled boreholes has replaced those hardships, bringing relief, dignity and renewed hope for communities that once endured generations of water scarcity.

In the remote village of Taruwona, nearly a two-hour drive from Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, Malid Chanakira, 62, begins each morning tending a flourishing vegetable garden irrigated by a borehole completed in August last year through a China-assisted water project.

For years, such a scene was beyond imagination.

Chanakira, who lives on a two-hectare plot previously depended on an aging fuel-powered water pump that frequently broke down.

"The machine broke down regularly and at times we struggled even to get water for basic domestic use," she said.

Today, the new borehole effectively serves about 100 households, improving livelihoods, enhancing food security and bringing new opportunities to the community.

"I can now water my kitchen garden and grow a variety of vegetables throughout the year," she said.

Chanakira believes even greater opportunities lie ahead if the borehole is connected to a solar-powered irrigation system that can pump water to neighboring farms, where maize, sweet potatoes, sorghum and groundnuts are grown.

Reliable access

Her story reflects the experience of thousands of Zimbabweans whose lives have been transformed by reliable access to water in a country increasingly affected by climate change and erratic rainfall patterns.

The borehole that has changed Chanakira's life is one of the 306 newly built boreholes over the past two years in four provinces in Zimbabwe, a project implemented by China Geo-Engineering Corporation with funding from the Chinese government.

According to the country project manager Zhao Jian, the initiative has significantly improved access to clean water in drought-prone communities. "It is expected to provide clean water and alleviate water shortages for 75,000 people," Zhao said.

The borehole project aligns with Zimbabwe's national goal of providing every village with access to a borehole and forms part of cooperation initiatives under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative.

In addition to China Geo-Engineering Corporation, some other Chinese companies have also carried out similar projects in Zimbabwe in recent years, drilling more than 1,000 boreholes for local residents.

The southern African country's borehole initiative was launched in response to one of Zimbabwe's worst droughts in 2024, which affected more than 80 percent of the population, devastated crops and left millions facing hunger.

Following the El Nino-induced disaster, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared a national state of disaster in April 2024.

In response, China launched a large-scale borehole drilling program targeting some of the hardest-hit areas.

According to Douglas Takundwa of the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, the impact has been significant.

Takundwa said the new water infrastructure has reduced reliance on an aging borehole built in the 1980s that struggled to keep up with rising demand, often leaving residents without a dependable water source.

In addition to solving daily use of water for villagers, the boreholes, while generating abundant water, are also helping poverty alleviation by improving crop production and creating various business opportunities for villagers, he said.