Story by Tafara Chikumira, Midlands Bureau Chief
VILLAGE business units have emerged as viable empowerment tools in rural communities after three units with solar-powered boreholes were commissioned in the Gokwe Sesame constituency.
The solar-powered boreholes can service 2 000 people including key facilities like schools and clinics.
The boreholes come with a one-hectare nutritional garden for self-help projects.
“We are very excited by the development we are witnessing in our area. We are very fortunate to have a listening President who addresses the people’s problems. As you are aware, Gokwe is a dry area and issues of water are very critical in our day-to-day lives.
“The fact that we are receiving safe and reliable water means a lot to the people here. We are moving from one ward to the other and the project is indeed proving to be a game changer,” Gokwe Sesame Constituency legislator, Honourable Madron Matiza said.
“The progress we are witnessing is quite incredible. My subjects have now been empowered as everything else requires water. It is a blessing that we have been crying for water and today we are all smiles as our prayers have been answered,” said Chief Nemangwe.
The government has adopted a deliberate plan for citizens in previously marginalised communities in line with the National Development Strategy 1.
“We are seeing progress as it happens under the leadership of our able leader President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“The man is walking the talk and we are assured of witnessing Vision 2030 coming to fruition earlier than 2030. We want to see to it that no region is left behind when it comes to issues of development,” said Midlands Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Owen Ncube.
The business units premised on the Second Republic’s Agriculture 8.0 Model are meant to cushion communities in dry regions against the effects of El Nino induced drought.