News / National
Community participation a panacea to Mwenezi's WASH problems
14 Dec 2015 at 09:42hrs | Views
Handover... One of the Ward 15 Village Heads officially receives the borehole from project officials at Chagomoka Primary School
With many boreholes broken and a few sanitation facilities worth a mention, Mwenezi has not been spared of the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) problems bedeviling many such rural districts in Zimbabwe, where rural folks have become accustomed to sharing the little water available in small rivers and streams with their livestock, and defecating in the open has become a culture everyone has silently agreed to acknowledge.
This decline in WASH coverage has seen an increase in the occurrence of diarrheal diseases and deaths as evidenced by the devastating 2009 cholera outbreak that killed 4 282 people and left over 98 000 infected.
In response to this, Practical Action, an international non-governmental organization with regional headquarters in Harare partnered a local NGO, Development Aid from people to people (DAPP) in 2011 to implement a WASH programme meant to address underlying challenges facing water, sanitation and hygiene in Zimbabwe in general and Mwenezi in particular through engaging communities to participate in improved access to sanitation, safe drinking water and health and hygiene behaviour change.
"I used to fetch water from a sand well by the river bed 8 km away from my home. This was time consuming because I had to wait for hours for clean water to collect after scooping out the dirty water found in the well thereby delaying my socio-economic activities.
"Practical Action and DAPP transformed our lives here by rehabilitating our local borehole that had been broken for close to 13 years. I now have access to clean and safe water and my family no longer suffer from recurrent diarrhoeal diseases, hence am spending less money on medical expenses," says Enita Mufuni from Muchemwa village in Ward 13.
Through community participation, a total of 374 hand pumps have been rehabilitated out of a target of 600 and 16 boreholes out of a target of 10 have been drilled and fitted with B type Bush Pumps.
To ensure the sustainability of these hand pumps, 2 468 water point management committee members (1 302 women) have been trained and are responsible for mobilizing resources and overseeing the maintenance of water points which is done by locally trained village pump mechanics.
"In my ward, I help my community by fixing and rehabilitating the pumps and for now the donor has supplied new fittings which I am using to rehabilitate these pumps. Through my experience, these will last for 3 to 4 years before they need attention again." Said Thomas Moyo, a pump mechanic from Ward 15.
The project is also targeting selected schools in the district that lack adequate water and sanitation facilities by drilling boreholes, constructing toilets and hand washing tanks and erecting billboards displaying hygiene education messages to constantly remind pupils of best practices in personal and environmental hygiene, which they will also cascade into the communities they come from.
To date, out of a target of 200 squat holes for 20 schools, 210 squats in multi compartment Blair units have been completes at 17 schools and 50 billboards have been erected at various schools in the district.
During an official borehole handover ceremony held at Chagomoka Primary School in Ward 15 recently, school head T Maize applauded the initiative saying the availability of water had enabled the school to construct a new classroom, an ablution block, a teacher's house and a lot more in the community.
"This resettlement school had an enrolment of 78 students but after the installation of the pump in October 2013, the enrolment rose to 250," said Maize.
Kudzai Marovanidze, Regional Director for Practical Action and Petros Muzuva, the DAPP Projects Coordinator implored the locals not to wholly depend on funded projects but rather take the initiative of using locally available resources to fight poverty.
"Before the project came to Mwenezi in 2011, open defecation was rampant because of a lack of proper sanitation and ablution facilities, hence the provision of sanitation facilities has been a major activity where the project is complementing efforts of the Ministry of Health and Child Care, as part of its overall mandate of providing quality health to all Zimbabweans," says Zibanayi Kisimisi, Practical Action's project manager.
The Water Facility programme has trained 127 local builders who have managed to construct 1 786 subsidised Blair toilets for vulnerable beneficiaries selected by the communities themselves against a target of 1 990.
The builders are now self-employed and have been empowered with the skills to generate income through constructing Blair toilets in their local communities.
"My life has morphed from a dependent to a breadwinner. I am now able to pay school fees for my children through building toilets. I don't just charge money for my work, I also take grain, goats or chickens and this means food security in my home. Some men do not appreciate what I do. They say toilets should not be built by women but I think as women we must be self-sufficient," says Ellen, a female builder from Ward 17.
To date, because of courageous women like Ellen, there has been a marked increase in the completion of unsubsidised toilet construction in the district that has seen 2 066 being completed since 2012, heavily contributing to the attainment of open defecation free (ODF) villages by project end.
Masvingo Provincial Water and Sanitation Sub-Committee (PWSSC) representative Conrad Gwature appreciated the efforts being made by the project saying the district has seen a sharp decrease in the practice of open defecation and in cases of diarrhoeal diseases as many community members now own toilets and have access to clean water.
"The programme that is being implemented by Practical Action and DAPP here has proved to be of great importance in that it has provided clean water, toilets and hygiene education making open defecation and diarrhoeal diseases a thing of the past.
"Before this project, things where bad because villagers had no toilets and were at the same time drinking water from the rivers contaminated by fecal matter from both humans and animals," said Gwature.
In its 2014 project overview report, Practical Action says the understanding and knowledge of safe hygiene practices is key to reducing water borne diseases.
"In Mwenezi, 190 School Health Masters have been trained in Participatory Health and Hygiene Education and they have established 127 School Health Clubs in their respective schools while 143 Community Health Clubs have been established in wards and villages to cascade health and hygiene education in the district through dramas, song and dance laden with health and hygiene wisdom.
"Practical Action has also innovated a kind of podcasting that do not require the Internet but volunteer health workers who disseminate life-serving messages recorded by WASH experts from the Rural District Council and local health centres on MP3 players with speakers in local languages to communities and schools where communications infrastructure is poor or non-existent," reads the report.
The European Union funded project's broad objective is to contribute to the attainment of the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the proportion of poor people without access to safe water and basic sanitation and reduce the health risks caused by the same in the rural areas of Zimbabwe by 2015.
The project, which started in August 2011 is being implemented in all 17 wards of Mwenezi district and is meant to have benefitted 106 000 men, women and children when it ends in July 2016.
This decline in WASH coverage has seen an increase in the occurrence of diarrheal diseases and deaths as evidenced by the devastating 2009 cholera outbreak that killed 4 282 people and left over 98 000 infected.
In response to this, Practical Action, an international non-governmental organization with regional headquarters in Harare partnered a local NGO, Development Aid from people to people (DAPP) in 2011 to implement a WASH programme meant to address underlying challenges facing water, sanitation and hygiene in Zimbabwe in general and Mwenezi in particular through engaging communities to participate in improved access to sanitation, safe drinking water and health and hygiene behaviour change.
"I used to fetch water from a sand well by the river bed 8 km away from my home. This was time consuming because I had to wait for hours for clean water to collect after scooping out the dirty water found in the well thereby delaying my socio-economic activities.
"Practical Action and DAPP transformed our lives here by rehabilitating our local borehole that had been broken for close to 13 years. I now have access to clean and safe water and my family no longer suffer from recurrent diarrhoeal diseases, hence am spending less money on medical expenses," says Enita Mufuni from Muchemwa village in Ward 13.
Through community participation, a total of 374 hand pumps have been rehabilitated out of a target of 600 and 16 boreholes out of a target of 10 have been drilled and fitted with B type Bush Pumps.
To ensure the sustainability of these hand pumps, 2 468 water point management committee members (1 302 women) have been trained and are responsible for mobilizing resources and overseeing the maintenance of water points which is done by locally trained village pump mechanics.
"In my ward, I help my community by fixing and rehabilitating the pumps and for now the donor has supplied new fittings which I am using to rehabilitate these pumps. Through my experience, these will last for 3 to 4 years before they need attention again." Said Thomas Moyo, a pump mechanic from Ward 15.
The project is also targeting selected schools in the district that lack adequate water and sanitation facilities by drilling boreholes, constructing toilets and hand washing tanks and erecting billboards displaying hygiene education messages to constantly remind pupils of best practices in personal and environmental hygiene, which they will also cascade into the communities they come from.
To date, out of a target of 200 squat holes for 20 schools, 210 squats in multi compartment Blair units have been completes at 17 schools and 50 billboards have been erected at various schools in the district.
During an official borehole handover ceremony held at Chagomoka Primary School in Ward 15 recently, school head T Maize applauded the initiative saying the availability of water had enabled the school to construct a new classroom, an ablution block, a teacher's house and a lot more in the community.
"This resettlement school had an enrolment of 78 students but after the installation of the pump in October 2013, the enrolment rose to 250," said Maize.
Kudzai Marovanidze, Regional Director for Practical Action and Petros Muzuva, the DAPP Projects Coordinator implored the locals not to wholly depend on funded projects but rather take the initiative of using locally available resources to fight poverty.
"Before the project came to Mwenezi in 2011, open defecation was rampant because of a lack of proper sanitation and ablution facilities, hence the provision of sanitation facilities has been a major activity where the project is complementing efforts of the Ministry of Health and Child Care, as part of its overall mandate of providing quality health to all Zimbabweans," says Zibanayi Kisimisi, Practical Action's project manager.
The Water Facility programme has trained 127 local builders who have managed to construct 1 786 subsidised Blair toilets for vulnerable beneficiaries selected by the communities themselves against a target of 1 990.
The builders are now self-employed and have been empowered with the skills to generate income through constructing Blair toilets in their local communities.
"My life has morphed from a dependent to a breadwinner. I am now able to pay school fees for my children through building toilets. I don't just charge money for my work, I also take grain, goats or chickens and this means food security in my home. Some men do not appreciate what I do. They say toilets should not be built by women but I think as women we must be self-sufficient," says Ellen, a female builder from Ward 17.
To date, because of courageous women like Ellen, there has been a marked increase in the completion of unsubsidised toilet construction in the district that has seen 2 066 being completed since 2012, heavily contributing to the attainment of open defecation free (ODF) villages by project end.
Masvingo Provincial Water and Sanitation Sub-Committee (PWSSC) representative Conrad Gwature appreciated the efforts being made by the project saying the district has seen a sharp decrease in the practice of open defecation and in cases of diarrhoeal diseases as many community members now own toilets and have access to clean water.
"The programme that is being implemented by Practical Action and DAPP here has proved to be of great importance in that it has provided clean water, toilets and hygiene education making open defecation and diarrhoeal diseases a thing of the past.
"Before this project, things where bad because villagers had no toilets and were at the same time drinking water from the rivers contaminated by fecal matter from both humans and animals," said Gwature.
In its 2014 project overview report, Practical Action says the understanding and knowledge of safe hygiene practices is key to reducing water borne diseases.
"In Mwenezi, 190 School Health Masters have been trained in Participatory Health and Hygiene Education and they have established 127 School Health Clubs in their respective schools while 143 Community Health Clubs have been established in wards and villages to cascade health and hygiene education in the district through dramas, song and dance laden with health and hygiene wisdom.
"Practical Action has also innovated a kind of podcasting that do not require the Internet but volunteer health workers who disseminate life-serving messages recorded by WASH experts from the Rural District Council and local health centres on MP3 players with speakers in local languages to communities and schools where communications infrastructure is poor or non-existent," reads the report.
The European Union funded project's broad objective is to contribute to the attainment of the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the proportion of poor people without access to safe water and basic sanitation and reduce the health risks caused by the same in the rural areas of Zimbabwe by 2015.
The project, which started in August 2011 is being implemented in all 17 wards of Mwenezi district and is meant to have benefitted 106 000 men, women and children when it ends in July 2016.
Source - Matthew Chirambamhanda
