By Naome Boka
NDARUZA village in Chirumanzu district has become the latest beneficiary of a solar-powered borehole with a village business unit as the government continues its rural industrialization programme.
The commissioning of the village business unit brings to 86 such facilities that have been commissioned by the Second Republic in the Midlands province.
The community is grateful for the Second Republic’s rural industrialization project which has culminated in them having safe drinking water and a viable business project in their backyard.
“We have embraced this programme that the government has helped us establish. Our garden was not sustainable before this programme, we had no water supply for crops, but now we have maize plants. It is going to help our livestock as well.”
“I commend the government for this initiative. It must also extend the generosity, to other parts of the country. They say water is life, and this project means we are given a lifeline here in Chaka,” said a beneficiary of the project.
“This project is going to make us start practicing commercial farming, and we will be able to sell our farm produce to the market. I say to the President, you have done a good thing to recognize us, keep the good work, we are your sons and daughters,” said another.
Midlands Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Owen Ncube said the government will continue to empower communities in previously marginalized communities in line with its inclusive development approach.
“The rural-urban divide where piped water and electricity were only available for urban communities will be a thing of the past. Through the provision of mini solar grids, biogas digesters, mobile solar units and piped water schemes this divide has since been addressed.”
“In this regard, the Ndaruza solarised borehole scheme demonstrates the Second Republic’s commitment to integrated rural livelihoods with broader industrialization value chains underpinned by our comparative advantages in locally available natural resources and human capital.”
The Second Republic has embarked on a massive scale of establishing solar-powered boreholes which come with business units countrywide in a bid to modernize and industrialize rural communities.
Meanwhile, Honourable Ncube distributed some pfumvudza – intwasa inputs in Chirumanzu and Gweru for peri-urban farmers.
