The Chronicle
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
PUPILS and teachers at Neshaya Secondary School in Hwange can breathe a sigh of relief and concentrate on schoolwork instead of walking a distance to fetch water after a well-wisher donated US$260 that was needed to power the school’s water pump.
For the past few years, learners and teachers have been walking two kilometres to and from a leaking Zimbabwe Power Company water pipe to fetch water for use at the school.
This meant lessons had to end early to allow teachers and learners to fetch water from the only nearby source shared by the community, wild animals and livestock.
There is no borehole near the school and the leaking pipe which supplies Hwange Power Station from Zambezi River has been the obvious alternative.
Neshaya Secondary used to have piped water at the school supplied by Hwange Colliery Company but was cut off for non-payment.
The Catholic Church-run Caritas donated a submersible water pump close to four years ago but the school has been failing to raise US$250 to pay the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company to connect the pump with electricity.
The school is both boarding and day, with a total enrolment is 412 pupils, 109 of them borders.
Boarders and teachers are the worst affected by lack of water at the school located along Deka road.
Besides disturbing lessons, lack of water had also affected nutrition at the school which has not had a viable garden for more than two years.
Children are also exposed to attack by wild animals like elephants that freely roam the area and drink from the same leaking pipe and also to abuse by some pedophiles that prey on school going children.
A disabled Form 3 girl, Blessing Ncube (15) who has one leg and is a border at the school, is one of those that have been bearing the brunt of lack of access to water at the school and she would join other learners to fetch from the pipe a kilometer away.
All this will be a thing of the past after Southern African Development Initiators (SADI) donated US$260 to the school on Monday to immediately connect water.
SADI is in the process of establishing an irrigation project, fish pond and citrus plantation in Kanjeza along Zambezi River to develop the community.
Neshaya school head Mr Lunyalalo Ncube thanked SADI for the gesture saying this will go a long way in improving conditions at the school.
“The issue of water had disturbed our school programme including pass rate as we always dismiss early so that learners and teachers can go look for water before it gets dark. Our boarders need water and we haven’t had a garden at school for a long time and this has also affected nutrition,” said Mr Ncube.
He said they would push to be connected this week.
“So, all along we have been fetching water from a breather on the ZPC pipe within the village but there are wild animals and as we speak elephants have been camped there for a week. We were given a submersible pump by Caritas but we have been failing to raise US$250 for connecting electricity to the pump.
“We appealed for help before Covid-19 hit but couldn’t get. We have been struggling for all these years and we are grateful to SADI for the donation. This is a sigh of relief and definitely we will have the water connected before Friday,” he said.
@ncubeleon
Article Source: The Chronicle