Bulawayo water activist Arnold Payne dies

Bulawayo water activists Arnold Payne has died.

He was 75.

Born in Mtshabezi area in Gwanda district in 1938, Payne had been involved in water activism all his life.

Payne, an enduring thorn on the side of government, the local authority and all those that he viewed as being blind to the problem, pushed a wheel burrow all the way from Victoria Falls to Bulawayo to highlight the problem.

In 1992, Payne pushed a wheelbarrow carrying 210l of water from the Zambezi River to Bulawayo and then Gwanda. He emptied the drum and then continued his journey with the wheelbarrow to the House of Parliament in Harare. Payne's plates, cups, clothing and vehicle are inscribed with the words "Zambezi Water for Matabeleland."

It was a symbolic gesture to raise the urgency of the crisis to the authorities to speed up the implementation of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project which seeks to draw water from the mighty Zambezi to Bulawayo.

Payne had a vision for Matabeleland that it would be transformed by the channeling of water from the Zambezi River.

In 1992, Payne claimed that he sourced funds from donors in Holland for the Zambezi Water Project but the donors withheld the funding after the government insisted the funds be channelled through the treasury. In 1992, Payne formed Operation Desperation Trust with the aim of raising funds for the Zambezi Water Project. Some of the trustees included Pius Ncube, David Coltart and Israel Ndlovu.

Bulawayo continues to face a water crisis, which has seen the Bulawayo City Council embarking on water rationing. The Zambezi water project was first mooted in 1912 but serious efforts to implement the project started in 1998 when the Dumiso Dabengwa-led Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust was formed.