Wild Animals Compete with Humans for Scarce Water

Hwange villagers are sitting on a health time bomb as they have to share dirty water with both domestic and wild animals. Image by Stock photos

BY BOKANI MUDIMBA | @The_CBNews | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | AUG 2, 2022

Like domestic livestock, the wild animals have also been affected by scarcity of water. The situation has forced animals to compete for the precious liquid with humans.

HWANGE (The Citizen Bulletin) — Villagers in Simangani and Mashala outside Hwange town are sitting on a health time bomb as they have to share dirty water with both domestic and wild animals.

“Our borehole broke down last year and since then we have been relying on a nearby stream for water, both for domestic use and for our livestock,” Mashala Top senior village head Elinat Tshuma says.

“Now the stream is drying up and the few remaining pools are muddy.”

“It's also a health risk because baboons, donkeys, dogs and other animals drink from the same small muddy pools.”
Elinat Tshuma, a senior village head

She says efforts to rehabilitate the borehole have been fruitless because villagers have been struggling to contribute US$1 each per household to repair the solar inverter at the borehole.

The broken down solar powered borehole was installed by World Vision six years ago.

A community nutritional garden which used to be a source of living for the villagers has dried up because of lack of water.

Tshuma says women and girls are the worst affected, waking up before dawn to search for water, risking being attacked by roaming wildlife.

“People have been waking up very early to the broken down borehole which used to supply water to three villages, each with 25 households,” according to Butindi village head, Bernard Shoko.

Shoko says villagers now spend more time looking for water than attending to chores such as gardening.

The Mashala stream connects with Deka River which is heavily polluted by effluent from coal mining companies in Hwange town.

“The remaining pools are drying up. People dig small wells on the sand to fetch water and each time they have to first scoop out mud because we share it with animals.”
Bernard Shoko, Butindi village head

He says the worst affected villages are Mashala Top, Mashala and Butindi.

Another village head, Raphael Nyoni urged the Central Government to urgently address the water challenges.

“Water is a right and it becomes violated when people struggle to access it. Government should prioritise water provision to prevent diseases and to improve people’s livelihoods,” Nyoni says.

Authorities from the District Development Fund (DDF) recently visited the area, raising hopes among villagers that the borehole will be repaired.

Villagers are in dire need of boreholes to ease water challenges. Image by Stock photos

DDF working with Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) are currently rehabilitating infrastructure such as water sources and roads in rural areas.

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Anxious Masuka is on record saying about 60 percent of the 35 000 boreholes that the Central Government plans to sink will be completed this year.

A borehole for each village will also help reduce distance travelled by communities to access water.

The country has 44 950 boreholes and of these, only 25 000 are functional, according to the Lands ministry.

Chief Hwange says a number of villages face water challenges.

ALSO READ: Villagers Bear Brunt of Human-wildlife Conflict

“It's not Mashala alone that faces water challenges. If you go further down towards Deka mouth there are communities that are in dry-land and have no source of clean water.”
Chief Hwange

Simangani Mashala Hwange Rural District councillor Ames Phiri, says the local authority has a plan to provide clean water to communities using devolution funds.

But Chief Hwange is not convinced.

“It will be wise to even force companies operating here to drill boreholes for communities because they are just polluting the environment and rivers yet villagers are not benefiting,” he says.

*Edited by Lizwe Sebatha | Fact Checked & Proofread by Melody Mpande | Reviewed & Commissioned by Divine Dube.

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