The Sunday Mail
Lea Mutanda
Government, through the District Development Fund (DDF), is set to drill boreholes at a number of prisons countrywide to ease water shortages being experienced at most holding facilities.
The project is being jointly undertaken by the Ministry of Health and Child Care and DDF and comes at a time when many towns and cities are facing water shortages. In an interview with The Sunday Mail last week, DDF director of water supplies and maintenance Mr Edwin Toriro said plans were to start drilling boreholes at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
“Last year, we were given a directive, by the President, to drill 600 boreholes countrywide and each province was to get 60 boreholes,” he said.
“We managed to drill 200 boreholes and rehabilitate 92 others countrywide. However, we have since noted that Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and other prisons are also facing serious water challenges.
“We have since approached ZPCS (Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services) and came up with a plan to drill boreholes so that prisoners have access to clean water.
“The project is jointly done by the Ministry of Health and Child Care,” he added.
The country has been facing some water challenges lately, which saw many citizens rely on borehole water.
ZINWA has in the past installed water pumps in prisons, but pumping has been affected by electricity cuts.
ZPCS is responsible for 46 main and 26 satellite prisons countrywide.
In most prisons, inmates rely on open sources of water.
