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In perched rural Matabeleland North, renewable energy is vital

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BY FARAI SHAWN MATIASHE

Under partly cloudy skies, Lydia Mlilo, 56, fetches water from a communal tap in the sparsely populated village of Singeni.

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Any clouds are unusual in winter in this semi-arid land with nothing but teak forests, and to Mlilo they are not a sign of rain.

The water in this Nkayi district village in Matebeleland North province, 168km northeast of Zimbabwe’s second-largest city of Bulawayo, is pumped from underground using solar energy and stored in huge tanks.

It is then carried by pipeline in the village, supplying water to villagers as well as a nearby school.

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Mlilo uses this water for all her domestic needs.

The mother of six still recalls the predicament of not having clean and safe water in the 2000s and early 2010s.

“It used to rain [so] that I could get water in the wells at my household, but that changed almost two decades back,” Mlilo said.

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“The water tables are now so low that we cannot even access water. We used to get water at about 12m, but now maybe at more than 50m.

“I had to fetch water from open wells on the shores of a nearby river.

“It was dirty but we had no choice, we had to drink it. We could, however, get stranded in summer when the river runs dry.”

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German charity Welthungerhilfe installed solar stations in Mlilo’s village and the village of Ngabayide as part of its Matabeleland Enhanced Livelihoods Agriculture and Nutrition Adaptation (Melana) project, which is running in four districts in Matabeleland.

The project started in 2016 and ends in 2022, and is part of the wider Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) programme.

These water sources benefit more than 350 households, as well as the owners of more than 4 000 head of cattle, who use them for drinking water and to dip their livestock, according to ZRBF-Melana project head Kudzai Nyengerai.

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Singeni village head Nathaniel Ncube (66), says there were outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid in the village in the early 2010s.

“Most of the households do not have toilets. Open defecation is common here,” Ncube said.

“With water being a menace in the village, we lost a number of our villagers from the outbreak of diseases.”

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Mlilo is a smallholder who grows drought-resilient crops such as millet and sorghum.

She also rears cattle and has 10 that she dips at a community dip tank. They drink water there, too.

Villagers in Nkayi district are limited in terms of how they can earn a living because climate change has made agriculture unviable.

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Some survive on remittances from the diaspora, as family members were forced to cross the border to neighbouring South Africa or Botswana to search for work during Zimbabwe’s economic crisis in the mid to late 2000s.

The roads are rugged and the villages difficult to access.

There is a lack of infrastructure such as electricity, internet, television and radio signals.

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Rachel Dube (29), from Singeni village, says she did not believe it was possible for a community deep in the thick forests to have a tap.

“I thought tap water was only for people in the cities,” Dube said.

“ I did not know it was possible for us. This solar technology has done wonders.”

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The mother of three says she can now practise the maximum levels of hygiene recommended by nurses when looking after her children.

Nyengerai said the solar stations ensure that villagers have a perennial source of water.

“The two communities in question here have since established nutrition gardens. Even the nearby schools have benefitted by establishing their own gardens, and issues like livestock poverty deaths and time poverty have been reduced.”

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Sukokuhle Khabo, 30, from Indibe village in Gwanda, is among the 2 100 households that benefit from the solar-powered irrigation schemes in this district in Matabeleland South province.

“I am growing onions, tomatoes and carrots for family consumption as well as for sale in Gwanda town and Bulawayo. We have been using the flash irrigation method to water the garden but we have since changed to drip irrigation, which saves water,” she says.

The mother of three says she uses the proceeds from her garden to buy other essentials for her family and pay her children’s school fees.

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Like Nkayi, the Gwanda district is semi-arid and poorly developed.

“Drip irrigation has less labour and is critical in conserving water,” says smallholder Musa Moyo (75) from Indibe.

“Drip irrigation uses less water on a large piece of land. We rotate our crops [and use] mulch to conserve the much-needed water.”

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Melody Makumbe is the project coordinator for Resilience Enhanced through Agricultural Productivity, run by development agency Practical Action.

“We use green energy to pump water as [opposed] to dirty fuels,” Makumbe said.

“ We facilitate access to markets, increasing access to finance, rehabilitation and support with infrastructure for irrigation as well as capacity-building for management structures of the irrigation schemes.”

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In Nkayi, residents have established asset management committees that oversee any operational or maintenance issues with the solar stations.

Nyengerai says villagers have set up a revolving fund to pay for any issues that arise with the equipment.

“Singeni village went on to have fundraising initiatives that fund the maintenance of the scheme, for instance, cattle sales.

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“These two projects have been run by the community since 2018 without any problem,” she added.

Mlilo hopes the initiative will expand to support other schools nearby.“Some schools in this village do not have clean and safe water,” she said.

“We are not yet safe from outbreaks if some nearby places such as schools have no water.” – New Frame

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This story was published with the support of the British Council as part of COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

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National

Zimbabwe on track for 6% growth as economy recovers from drought

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BY REUTERS

Zimbabwe is on track to achieve a forecasted 6% economic growth in 2025 helped by good agricultural output and strong commodity prices, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Thursday.

The Southern African country’s economy has shown signs of recovery in the first half of the year following a severe drought and currency turbulence in 2024 that pushed GDP growth down to 2%.

“Given the positive economic developments during the period January to June, we are confident that the projected economic growth of 6% alluded to in the 2025 National Budget is achievable,” Ncube told parliament in a mid-year budget review.

“All sectors of the economy are expected to record positive growth in 2025, mainly on account of a favourable agriculture season, improved electricity generation, stable exchange rate and inflation rate,” he said.

He did not give an update on the budget deficit, which was seen at 0.4% of gross domestic product in 2025 during the budget forecast last November.

Zimbabwe’s fiscal position remains under strain from grain imports, drought relief spending and the public sector wage bill. While the government has collected more revenue than in the same period last year, analysts say containing the deficit may prove difficult without new fiscal measures.

The local currency, the ZiG, launched in April 2024 to replace the Zimbabwe dollar, has largely remained stable against the U.S. dollar but is still overshadowed by widespread use of the dollar in everyday transactions.

Ncube reiterated the government’s commitment to the gold-backed unit and said the currency had benefited from tight monetary and fiscal policies.

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National

Malaria cases surge in Zimbabwe

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BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

Zimbabwe is experiencing a dramatic surge in malaria cases, with 111 998 cases and 310 deaths reported as of epidemiological week 23 in 2025.

This is a significant increase from the same period in 2024, which saw 29 031 cases and 49 deaths.

According to Dr Memory Mapfumo, an epidemiologist at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), “This surge is no coincidence. Prolonged rains have fueled mosquito breeding, while activities like gold panning, fishing, and artisanal mining are exposing more individuals to risk, especially during peak mosquito activity hours.”

The situation is worsened by the low use of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs), leaving communities exposed and placing further strain on already stretched health systems. Across Zimbabwe, 115 out of 1 705 health facilities have been affected, highlighting the widespread impact of the disease on healthcare infrastructure.

Mashonaland Central Province has accounted for 32% of all malaria cases, while Manicaland reported 25% of the malaria-related deaths. The interconnectedness of the countries in the region has also contributed to the spread of the disease.

Zimbabwe’s malaria outbreak is part of a broader regional trend. Other countries in southern Africa, including Botswana, eSwatini, and Namibia, are also experiencing significant increases in malaria cases.

In Botswana, 2 223 cases and 11 deaths have been reported, with Okavango being the hardest hit. eSwatini has recorded 187 cases, with children under 15 and farmers being particularly affected. Namibia has seen over 89 959 cases and 146 deaths, with the majority of cases being local transmissions.

The Africa CDC emphasizes the need for continued vigilance and investment in malaria control. Governments must enhance their efforts to improve the use of ITNs, strengthen community engagement, and address environmental and social factors driving the outbreaks.

Dr Merawi Aragaw, head of Africa CDC’s Surveillance and Disease Intelligence, notes that “as climate change accelerates, we are witnessing shifts in temperature and rainfall that are expanding the range of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, introducing vectors into previously unaffected regions.”

According to Dr Aragaw, “sustained vector control measures – including environmental management, strengthening surveillance, drug and diagnostic resistance monitoring, and fostering cross-border collaboration – will be critical in mitigating the growing threat of vector-borne diseases, especially malaria.”

The regional surge underscores a broader global trend, with malaria cases worldwide climbing to 263 million in 2023, up from 252 million the previous year, and Africa accounting for 95% of all malaria-related deaths.

Despite these alarming figures, there have been significant successes: Cabo Verde was certified malaria-free in 2023, and Egypt is poised to achieve the same in 2024. Yet for many countries in southern Africa, the road to elimination remains steep, with outbreaks threatening to reverse years of progress.

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National

Government unveils plan to curb road accidents

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BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

Minister of Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting Services, Jenfan Muswere, has outlined a series of measures to combat the rising tide of road traffic accidents in the country.

Zimbabwe has been witnessing a worrying surge in road traffic accidents, with the latest incident claiming 17 lives last week, along Seke road.

Yesterday, Muswere addressed the cabinet, outlining measures to curb road traffic accidents. Below is his statement, word for word:

“So capacitation of the vehicle inspection is ongoing and the sourcing of the vehicle inspection department. Compliance to legislation is also one of the parameters that we are utilising.Standardisation in terms of driving schools, the training of drivers, speed limits as a governance to traffic monitoring, the utilisation of traffic management, the utilisation of cameras for number plate recognition and facial recognition in order to curb over speeding and traffic offences. The capacitation of the Zimbabwe Republic Police in order to apprehend and also deal with traffic offences. Legislation amendments that are taking place in order to ensure that our roads are safe. As the minister (Felix Mhona) has also highlighted that the Civil Protection Unit is being capacitated in order to deal with the challenges that we might not have been able to deal with as part of an architecture under the hall of government approach.”

Background statistics from the Zimbabwe Republic Police reveal a concerning trend. During the first six months of 2025, the country recorded 28 159 road traffic accidents, up from 25 968 in the same period last year. Fatal crashes also increased by 11% from 784 to 870, while road deaths rose by 4.9% from 1 037 to 1 088. The majority of accidents occur in known danger zones, often due to commuter congestion and erratic driving by public transport operators.

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