Lingwe ERVHIZ Project

Lingwe villagers of Matobo ward 8 recently celebrated the commissioning of the Lingwe piped water scheme that will help resolve the water challenges faced in the area.

The water will benefit over 1 300 people in the ward, that is over 135 households including some from neighbouring wards.

“We have incorporated a school with 230 pupils, a garden with 50 farmers and a dip tank with 201 farmers, whose cattle amount to 1 398. The residents who will benefit are from wards 8,9, 10 as well as villagers from Lingwe village under Chief Bidi,” said a local representative of the scheme, Evis Ndlovu.

The village has gone for 24 years without clean drinking water as attempts to drill a borehole have proved futile.

“We stayed for 24 years drinking dirty water, water with human waste. The efforts made to survey the area for purposes of drilling a borehole would only result in dry waves” said Evis Ndlovu.

Ward 8 is in one of the 10 dry wards of Matobo district, and this has led to most borehole surveys yielding negative results.

“The district falls into region 4 and 5 which is characterized by poor rainfall patterns, in this regard it is imperative to note that, the southern part of this district comprising of ward 1 to 10 has very little chances of success in terms of drilling boreholes due to a low water table,” highlighted CEO of Matobo Rural District Council, Mr Elvis Sibanda.

Lingwe once had a pipeline system that was operational from 1991 to 1998 running on diesel, the scheme stopped working due to various challenges faced by the elders in the community.

The commissioned scheme was built on this old pipeline, transforming the old diesel engine to a solar powered engine.

The piped water scheme will ensure that community members consume treated water.

BY Fiona Mpofu MYDI