Lands and Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka admitted in Parliament yesterday that the government did not have resources to drill 35 000 boreholes, that is, one for each village, by the year 2030.
He had been asked by Thokozani Khupe how many boreholes the government had so far drilled out of the 35 000 it promised.
Masuka said they had only drilled 3 600.
Asked by another legislator Corban Madzivanyika whether the government would be able to complete the project in four years when it had only drilled 11 % of the boreholes, Masuka said: “11% success or achievement is really reflective of the meagre resources that have been allocated by Parliament for this local cause, for which I urge the Hon. Member to assist us in getting more resources to enable us to complete this task in a defined period.
“The second aspect is to note that in this low pace, the resources are not matching the ambition. What we have now done with the boreholes that were drilled largely by what used to be called DDF, now it is RIDA, the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, is to go back to this listing of 42 000 boreholes drilled somewhere in the country, somewhere in the village to be able to do a capacity test on those and the more prolific ones to then qualify for the establishment of this water point that we then call Village Business Units.
“We think that with the combination of accelerated resources, as is required to meet the ambition and also this programme where we are selecting those that were previously drilled, those that are prolific enough, being upgraded to become Village Business Units that with this twin approach, we will be able to achieve. I think the most important is that the resources are available for this very noble and important cause.”
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