The Sunday Mail
Wallace Ruzvidzo
Sunday Mail Correspondent
THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (zinwa) will take delivery of 10 borehole drilling rigs this month, while an additional 30 will be delivered during the first quarter of next year.
The drilling rigs will be used to anchor the Presidential Rural Horticulture Transformation Plan under which 10 000 boreholes will be drilled countrywide next year.
zinwa corporate communications and marketing manager Mrs Marjorie Munyonga told The Sunday Mail that US$13 million has been set aside to procure the rigs.
“A total of 40 borehole drilling rigs are being acquired as a way of boosting and beefing up zinwa’s borehole drilling capacity,” she said.
“The boreholes are being delivered in batches with the first 10 expected to be supplied between end of November and mid-December 2021.
“The other 30 will be delivered during the first quarter of 2022.
“The 40 rigs will cost US$13 305 344.”
The drilling rigs would be distributed evenly across the country’s eight rural provinces.
zinwa plans to drill 35 000 boreholes by 2025 with the first 300 boreholes being drilled by year-end.
“The 40 rigs will be distributed evenly throughout and stationed in the eight rural provinces of Zimbabwe to undertake the drilling of the 35 000 boreholes which anchor the Presidential Horticulture Programme.
“zinwa has deployed its resources to kick-start the Presidential Horticultural Programme and by 31 December 2022, 322 boreholes would have been drilled.
“Under the Presidential Horticultural Programme, 10 000 boreholes will be drilled in 2022.”
Over 2,3 million households are expected to benefit from fruit production and the establishment of village nutrition gardens under the programme.
Each household will receive 10
fruit trees of different varieties depending on suitability of the tree to a particular region.
The programme is projected to increase rural household incomes by an average of US$2 000 a year.
