By Conrad Mwanawashe, recently in Bikita
Can there be anything more traumatic than losing your only source of livelihood?
Can you survive the trauma of going through two consecutive and most devastating catastrophes?
Picture this: the first catastrophe wipes away your only source of livelihood, income: your vegetable garden which you tendered to with much vigour and passion.
All your vegetables wiped away over a night of a violent Cyclone IDAI.
Cyclone IDAI, which struck Zimbabwe in March 2019, affected 270,000 people, left 340 people dead and many others missing. Agriculture, schools and infrastructure all suffered heavy impacts.
To some, a garden may appear just that: a vegetable garden, but for someone who has never known any formal pay advice, a garden may be their gold mine.
To them losing their garden equates to a solid mining company waking up one morning
without their underground pit. All gone!
Such is the trauma Beatrice Murechu-Chitema has had to endure.
Her life reads like a horror script.
“I have never seen that much rain in my life. I had vegetables in my garden on the river banks which my family survived on. But after a night of heavy pounding, my garden, my source of livelihood, was gone. Cyclone IDAI was scary,” said Murechu-Chitema.
“I was left with no option but to start afresh. We were then allocated plots and we went on to form Tabudirira Garden in 2021,” she said.
Murechu-Chitema is one of the 47 members of Tabudirira Garden, in Ward 25 in Bikita District.
As she attempted to recover from the impact of the devastating Cyclone IDAI, another extreme weather calamity was waiting in the wings to strike, this time taking the opposite of the violent waters.
It is the scorching sun, heat that dries the deepest and scariest of rivers. It is called the El Nino, which has induced a famine never witnessed in Zimbabwe before.
“El Nino brough new challenges. Our water source was drying up and the heat was unbearable. It was hot such that the garden would dry up soon after watering,” she added.
To compound matters for Murechu-Chitema, these two consecutive weather-induced crises were affecting an already arid Bikita on the edges of the Save Valley Conservancy.
Bikita district, the third-driest district in Masvingo after Chivi and Chiredzi,
is perennially-plagued by food shortages, a direct result of the low rains.
She had to navigate these consecutive devastating catastrophes to look after her family.
The heavens answered her prayers but not in the form of rains, but through Musaizi piped water project in Ward 25.
The piped water project, initiated by government in partnership with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with support from the United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), has brought back the lost smile on Murechu-Chitema’s face.
“Had it not been for the piped water scheme, we would have stopped gardening especially during the dry periods,” said Murechu-Chitema.
Musaizi piped water project has improved living standards, not for Murechu-Chitema alone but for all the 47 members of Tabudirira Garden.
“I’m now able to pay school fees for my children through proceeds from the garden and also contribute vegetables towards the school feeding programme. Living standards have also improved, I can now afford to buy bread for my family everyday just like any other person on a monthly payroll,” she said.
Some of the other notable changes in her life include eating healthy organic fresh vegetables from her nutrition garden.
“Last year we had carrots and potatoes. This piped water project has helped to improve our nutrition,” Murechu-Chitema said with a smile.
The Musaizi piped water project was one of the four schemes under the emergency cholera response programmes in Bikita district.
“People were travelling for about four kilometres to fetch water. However, this scheme has changed their lives because it has brought water closer to them. Apart from reducing distances, the project has also reduced abuse of young girls associated with sourcing for water. It has also reduced human and wildlife conflict as the district borders the Save Valley Conservancy,” said Eunica Chiome, Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA), District Chair.
RIDA is responsible for water and sanitation in the districts.
Village health worker and Tabudirira Garden club member, Elizabeth Ngwenya applauded the piped water project for improving sanitation coverage and ending a cholera outbreak which affected the district.
“The cholera outbreak hit us because our people were drinking water from contaminated sources like rivers. I would like to thank government and UNICEF for the piped water project. People have now become sensitive to sanitation issues,” said Ngwenya.
