MORE than 1,4 million villagers in 11 districts are set to benefit from a £12 million grant availed by UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) for the extended rural Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme.
BY PHYLLIS MBANJE
Speaking during the announcement of the new grant, teputy representative for Unicef Zimbabwe, Jane Muita said access to safe water and adequate sanitation remained critical to the realisation of fundamental human rights.
Muita said poverty assessment research shows that improved access to water is the most important element to the creation of strategies that alleviate poverty.
“Lack of access to water, sanitation and hygiene remains a major concern to Unicef, as it has a great bearing on the health and wellbeing of women and children,” she said.
A strong gender imbalance exists in rural areas, where women and girls do the great majority of manual and management work for water and sanitation services at the household level.
“These activities can deprive women of time to engage in economic activities to enhance their livelihoods and compromise the girl child’s ability to reach her full education potential,” Muita said.
DFID head of mission, Annabel Gerry said the grant will improve the lives of some of the poorest people in Zimbabwe and mitigate the risk of catastrophic diseases.
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“The programme has already improved access to drinking water for over three million people across 33 rural districts of Zimbabwe,” Gerry said.
Under the first phase of the Rural WASH programme 1 620 new boreholes have been drilled; 1 600 schools have access to adequate gender sensitive sanitation facilities; 2 500 villages have been declared Open Defecation Free; 32 piped water schemes rehabilitation and over 10 000 boreholes have been rehabilitated.
Permanent secretary in the Water, Climate and Environment ministry and also chairperson of the National Action Committee (NAC) for WASH, Prince Mupazviriho said the grant will greatly assist the country to achieve the SDGs targets that require government to ensure safe water and dignified sanitation for all.
According to Unicef, at least 32% of people in rural Zimbabwe do not have access to improved sources of drinking water, while about 52% do not have access to safe sanitation facilities.
