BULAWAYO residents are calling on government to complete drilling boreholes in some suburbs of the city, which they say appear to have been abandoned soon after the August 2023 elections.
Critics accused the ruling Zanu PF party of using the scheme as a vote-buying gimmick.
In Mzilikazi, residents lamented failure by government to complete borehole drilling in the suburb.
Mzilikazi residents chairperson Jacob Magutshwa demanded answers on the suspended project.
“There are three boreholes that were drilled in A, E and Y Squares during campaigns. Only one was completed, which is in V square near Manwele Beer Garden,” he said.
“There were supposed to be four in total, which were to add on to the three that we have now, but we are still waiting even now.”
But Zanu PF shadow legislator for Mpopoma-Mzilikazi constituency, Dzingai Kamamba, said they were still pooling funds to complete the project.
“Concerning the boreholes, for ward 8, which covers Mzilikazi, Nguboyenja, Sotshangane, Thorngrove, Matshobana and part of Entumbane as per the new delimitation, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) surveyed and sited 13 boreholes in February 2024,” he said.
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“This is a presidential initiative run under the provincial minister’s office.”
He said the province was given a drilling rig meant to service Bulawayo.
Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution secretary Paul Nyoni said he was in a meeting when contacted for comment.
Earlier this year, a United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean intervened in Mzilikazi’s water crisis by drilling a borehole to address the suburb’s acute water shortage.
Bulawayo is going through one of its worst water crises, with some of the city’s major supply dams already decommissioned.
In April, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Obert Jiri posted on X (formerly Twitter) saying government was targeting to drill 10 000 boreholes countrywide by October 2024 under the irrigation rehabilitation and development project, as efforts to climate-proof agriculture intensify, with the overall scheme aimed at drilling 35 000 solar-powered boreholes during the National Development Strategy 1 phase spanning from 2021 to 2025.
He said three borehole drilling rigs were allocated to each of the country’s 10 provinces as part of the initiative.
