Women in rural Zimbabwe are coming up with solutions to water shortages aggravated by climate change. Credit:Ignatius Banda/IPS
Beauty Moyo’s desire for access to water has finally been met. The
rains that fell in the past week after a long dry patch have awakened
this small-holder farmer deep in rural Plumtree, Zimbabwe on the border
with Botswana to the reality of sparse rainfall, climate change and how
she and her fellow villagers can respond.
Plumtree, like most parts of
southwestern Zimbabwe, is notorious for low rainfall. But millions of
farmers in the country rely on rain-fed agriculture and food they grow
themselves, which presents villagers like Moyo with tough choices.
“The rains that fell this week have been able to bring back hope as we had sunk our own reservoir to trap the water,” Moyo said.
She says she teamed up with other neighbours during the course of the
year, and they invested their energies in digging what looks like a
miniature golf-course waterway.
“This idea came after people realised we have been complaining each year about poor rainfall and harvests,” Moyo told IPS.
This reservoir water is used in farming activities where the
subsistence farmers say instead of spraying the whole field with water,
they now water individual plants.
“It’s a lot of work, but it helps conserve our water,” said Susan Mathebula, another villager working on the project with Moyo.
“We had heavy rains that we had not seen in a long time, with ice
falling, and we were able to trap the water in this small catchment we
set up ourselves,” Mathebula told IPS in mid-February.
While drinking water is available from such sources as boreholes,
Mathebula says their major concern is water for irrigation purposes, as
they plant their own food and cannot rely on rainfall alone for the
maize and groundnuts they grow in their small fields.
Plumtree is one of the areas lying on the southwestern belt that
experienced localised heavy downpours in the last week of February, with
the Zimbabwe Meteorological Service Department announcing that the
nation should expect more rainfall in the next two months.
Hope is returning that the water they have will ensure adequate
household food security at a time when humanitarian agencies such as the
Famine Early Warning System – Network (FEWS-NET) announced early this
year that millions of Zimbabweans will require food aid.
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