Radio Dialogue Giving you a voice
The acute water shortage facing Insiza South district is threatening the survival of community nutritional gardens that have become a source of living for most households.
Villagers told Radio Dialogue that the few dams which they use for watering are fast running out casting “a dark cloud over their almost new forms of employment”.
Sipho Ndlovu, ward 12 headman said most villagers have been relying on these gardens but the future is bleak following insufficient rains during the previous season.
“Our efforts have suffered a major blow,” he said.
“The communities are inhabited by old and in most cases lonely people with no one to take care of them and they had seen these gardens as a break through to their problems, but sadly there is no water now.”
Ndlovu further said the few boreholes that are dotted around the district are also running dry while appealing to government to intervene and stop the looming crisis.
He said: “I’m certain that with enough and reliable water sources, the starvation that is facing villagers won’t be that severe because we making money out of growing vegetables.”
Another villager Gladys Moyo, echoed similar sentiment that the gardens have become the main source of income for them.
“Sesizinhlanzi ezitshelwe ngamanzi. The fact of the matter is that Insiza is a dry district and to wait for the rains is no longer profitable hence our determination to promote nutritional gardens,” she said.
She said they are growing vegetables such as tomatoes carrots and leaf vegetables. Most districts of Matabeleland South are facing water shortages due to low rains received in during the previous season.
