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Bongani Ndlovu, Online Reporter

THE Presidential Borehole Drilling Scheme rolled into Bulawayo with one being drilled at Barham Green Suburb as the Government moves to mitigate water shortages that are affecting the city.

Bulawayo is under a stringent five-day weekly water-shedding schedule amid a countrywide Cholera outbreak.

Surprisingly the city has recorded no deaths and has recorded only 18 cases as of Tuesday. Cholera has claimed 447 people nationally.

The ongoing scheme is part of the Presidential Rural Development Programme launched by President Mnangagwa in December 2021 at the Sekusile-Makorokoro nutrition garden in Jinjika Village, Mangwe District in Matabeleland South province.

Under the programme, which is aimed at improving the availability of clean water, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) is set to drill solar-powered boreholes for each of the country’s 35 000 villages by 2025.

Each village will also be empowered with a nutrition garden with a wide range of fruit trees.

The Government will also drill 9 600 boreholes for schools while each ward will have an additional two boreholes for youth horticulture projects.

The programme is benefiting over 1,8 million households as the Second Republic accelerates efforts to alleviate poverty among rural communities in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

The scheme has created employment for women and youths thereby improving livelihoods as outlined in the Agriculture and Food System Transformation Strategy whose thrust is to see Zimbabwe achieve an US$8,2 billion agriculture economy by 2025.

In Barham Green in Bulawayo, Zanu-PF Provincial Spokesperson Cde Archie Chiponda who unsuccessfully vied for a council seat in Ward 5, said the scheme was for every Zimbabwean.

“These boreholes have been donated by the President and even though some of us candidates were unsuccessful we will still work for our communities and make sure they benefit. The scheme is not about politics, it’s about improving lives in the communities we come from,” said Cde Chiponda.

He said he would continue to work with the Provincial Coordinator Cde Mnothisi Nsingo to ensure that the neighbourhoods in the Ward get boreholes to alleviate the water situation.