El Niño-induced water crisis hits villagers in Zimbabwe

Climate change

To reach water deep underground, Enia Tambo (59) uses a 25-litre white plastic bucket to haul huge amounts of sand from the Vhombozi River in Mudzi District, Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe. Photo: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

MUDZI, Zimbabwe, September 9, 2024 (IPS) – Together with her male villagers, Enia Tambo uses a 25-litre white plastic bucket to dig sand hills in the Vhombozi River, in the Mudzi District of Mashonaland East Province in Zimbabwe.

The woman, in her late 50s, is digging for water deep underground.

The El Niño-induced drought has had such a severe impact on the countryside nearly 230 kilometres east of the country’s capital, Harare, that finding water is a daily struggle.

Tambo wore a yellow T-shirt with a portrait of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa. She wore a red-white-black-yellow cloth around her waist and a white headscarf around her head to protect her from the sun. She joined a group of sweaty young men who were busy with shovels digging the dry well.

A herd of clearly thirsty cattle, and their equally thirsty band of little herd boys, waited in the middle of the dry river, hoping to quench their thirst in the scorching heat of this impoverished Zimbabwean district.

During the worst months of the El Niño-induced drought that has hit Zimbabwe hard, Mudzi villagers are more often than not digging with their bare hands for water from dry streams and wells, including the Vhombozi River.

The El Niño-induced drought has left villagers like Tambo left to fend for themselves and their livestock, as they struggle to find the precious liquid.

Tambo says they are desperate for the life-saving resource and have no choice but to run for it, competing with their own livestock.

“We have a serious water problem. We are asking for help, at least with water taps and wells. We do not have a dam or a functioning water source. We drink from the same source with our cattle, both women and men, because we find water by digging in the river sand to reach the water below,” Tambo, 59, from Nyamudandara village in Mudzi, told IPS.

No drilling holes, no taps, no extra burden

Men have joined the fight to find water in dry rivers such as Vhombozi in Nyamudandara village in Zimbabwe’s Mudzi district due to severe water shortages. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

It never rains, but it causes problems for many poor villagers here. Once they have collected water from deep in the riverbeds, they have to walk long distances, balancing buckets of water on their heads, to their homes.

Climate change expert Batanai Mutasa, who is also a communications officer for the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association, blamed rising temperatures for the drying up of rivers, dams and boreholes.

“The heat of El Niño is causing boreholes and rivers to dry up. The changing weather patterns that bring flooding, very hot conditions and poor rainfall are also resulting in acute food shortages,” Mutasa told IPS.

Reena Ghelani, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Climate Emergency Coordinator for the El Niño Response, said after her recent visit to South Africa that harvests had failed in April/May, leaving more than 20 million people food insecure and more than a million children at risk of severe acute malnutrition.

“In the face of such challenges, governments and regional authorities have stepped up and partners have supported their efforts, including through emergency allocations from the Central Emergency Response Fund (OCHA Financing and Partnerships) and insurance payments (through the African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group). But more needs to be done,” Ghelani said.

In April this year, Elias Magosi, Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), expressed his dismay in the media about the poor rainfall in the region.

“The 2024 rainy season has been challenging, with most parts of the region experiencing the negative effects of the El Niño phenomenon, which is characterised by late onset of rainfall,” said Magosi.

According to the SADC bloc, nearly 68 million people in the region, including Zimbabwe, where many people like Tambo live in impoverished villages such as Nyamudandara in Mudzi, are suffering from the effects of an El Niño-induced drought.

Child labor and sexual exploitation are on the rise

In such poor Zimbabwean villages, even underage children are having to give up their education to help their parents and caregivers find the precious liquid during the devastating drought.

Some women claim they are sexually abused by powerful men in the countryside who control the only available water sources. The women claim they are forced to have sex in exchange for water.

“Men demand sex from us before they allow us to fetch water and our children have dropped out of school to help us find water every day,” a woman from Mudzi who did not want to be named for fear of being victimised, told IPS.

Yet the water crisis is an age-old problem in remote districts of Zimbabwe such as Mudzi, according to villagers like 52-year-old Collen Nyakusawuka, from Nyamudandara village in Mudzi.

But villagers have tried countless times and asked government authorities for help.

“The water problem in this village started in 1980 and to this day we still have no water. Sometimes we complain to the authorities but we do not get any help,” Nyakusawuka said.

Residents of Nyamudandara village in Mudzi, like 30-year-old Freddy Nyamudandara, say the water crisis in their community has spiralled out of control and many people, like him, are unable to cope.

“We have a really serious water problem, which has become worse this year. We really need help with water for ourselves and our livestock because we have no dam and the only available boreholes are broken,” Nyamudandara told IPS.

Drilling promises not yet fulfilled

In Mudzi district, Kudzai Madamombe, the district medical officer, says Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa promised to drill boreholes to help angry villagers hit by water shortages. He said: “President Mnangagwa came up with the presidential borehole plan where he said he would drill 70 boreholes for the people of Mudzi.”

But so far, the community has not benefited from the government scheme.

To address the growing water crisis in remote areas of Zimbabwe, such as Mudzi, UNICEF has also stepped in.

Progress Katete, UNICEF’s nutritionist, said her organization has appealed for over $84 million to tackle the drought that is ravaging districts like Mudzi.

“UNICEF has supported the government in drilling boreholes and setting up piped water systems because as you can see, some communities — the women and men in the community — have to walk very far to fetch water and sometimes it is not even safe water. In some cases, school children miss school because they have to fetch water for the family,” Katete told IPS.

Mudzi District Ward 17 Councillor Kingston Shero noted that there was not enough funding for every village to get a borehole. “Due to inadequate resources, only a few villages have managed to get assistance from the council with boreholes.”

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), El Niño, which has caused rising temperatures and extreme weather worldwide, will lead to La Niña conditions again later this year.

Ghelani said the region should receive normal to above-average rainfall in October-December, which could boost the planting season and help recovery, but could also lead to local flash feeding, especially on dry land, and pests. And without adequate support, families who have sold their livestock and belongings will not be able to recover.

In an appeal for funding, she said: “We must provide support now to save lives and alleviate suffering, rather than waiting for the crisis to get worse.”

Until the rains return, Tambo continues her daily work of digging riverbeds in the hope of finding enough drinking water for herself and her family.

IPS UN Office Report