By Maricho Reporter
WELTHUNGERHILFE, one of the largest, privately held, German non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in development cooperation and emergency relief, is targeting improved access to safe and sustainable water supplies to over 100,000 people drawn from the rural population in Zimbabwe’s six districts by February 2025, Maricho Magazine has learnt.
The Charity Water Rural Wash Project’s overall outcome is to ensure progress towards increased access to equitable and sustainable use of protected basic water supplies; use of improved basic sanitation; open defecation-free communities and adoption of hygiene practices, among the rural population in the six targeted districts, namely, Mt Darwin, Rushinga, Chegutu, Shamva, Zvimba and Guruve.
The Project Donor is Charity: Water, an organisation which has been on a mission to end the water crisis since 2006. Charity: Water says that eight out of ten people without access to improved water sources live in rural areas.
The organisation works with carefully-chosen local partner organizations to bring clean water to remote areas with the greatest needs and most vulnerable populations, with the local partners selecting water point locations based on a variety of factors like geography, assessment of need, community participation, and long-term sustainability.
Charity: Water has released €4.5 million with the planned project end date to service the targeted population of 101,955 people being February 28 2025.
Water, sanitation, and hygiene challenges persistently pose serious public health issues in Zimbabwe. Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West Provinces are also affected. WASH-related diseases and some deaths continue to be recorded annually.
Since 2017, WHH has responded to this in three districts in Mashonaland Central; namely Rushinga, Mt Darwin and Shamva. It has implemented WASH projects that have rehabilitated over 1,000 water points with the support of different donors like FCDO and UNICEF. These previous efforts mostly targeted existing water points hence distances travelled to water points were not reduced.
Against this backdrop, WHH proposed a project that would address WASH constraints. It secured funding from charity: water and launched a project focused on reducing the distances vulnerable women and girls travel in search of safe water. The districts have serious water challenges since they receive deficient rainfall annually and hence the available shallow wells which are the alternative water sources are seasonal and dry up during the dry season.
Project objectives
- 101,955 people (drawn from the rural population in the 6 districts) have improved access to safe and sustainable water supplies by February 2025.
- 720 Households in 24 villages of Mt Darwin (3), Rushinga (6), Shamva (4), Guruve (4), Chegutu Rural (4) and Zvimba (3) are triggered and monitored for open defecation-free status by the end by February 2025.
- 25 Schools in the project areas benefiting from new or rehabilitated water points have improved access to safe and adequate sanitation facilities with hand washing facilities by February 2025
- 101,955 people in the six districts have improved knowledge of good hygiene practices aimed at reducing the incidence of diarrheal diseases by February 2025
Key activities
- Provision of new water sources at community and School/Health centre levels.
- Rehabilitation of existing community and school water sources
- Rehabilitation of Community Managed Piped Water Schemes rehabilitated with functional management committees
- Capacity building and skills transfer to improve the operation and management of these new and improved water sources, hence supporting their sustainability.
- Training of Village Pump mechanics.
- Training of Extension Workers on SafPHHE and Demand-Led Sanitation (DLS) approach.
- Triggering of villages to roll out DLS
Welthungerhilfe has been implementing projects in Zimbabwe almost continuously since 1980. Currently, the organization together with its partners has projects in urban and rural communities across the country. Its focus is on food systems transformation, WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), resilience, and emergency response.
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