Water crisis hits evicted Mazowe families

A HEALTH time bomb is in the making at Arnold Farm near Mazowe Dam where evicted villagers are battling to secure clean, potable water, NewsDay has established.

This came out during a visit to the outskirts of the farm the victims called home for several years.

The water crisis has become so dire that domestic animals are competing with humans for the scarce precious liquid.

Rumbidzai Mataka, a mother of three, including a six-month-old son, looked dejected as she sat on the open ground along the Harare-Bindura Highway.

She is among 21 villagers evicted from Arnold Farm, also known as Manzou in Mazowe, Mashonaland Central province.

Breastfeeding her son, Mataka has been caught in the crossfire of government’s chaotic land reform programme, where political heavyweights are battling to control the farm.

The visit on Friday highlighted the “unjust world” that some of the women are subjected to as the water crisis takes its toll.

“Our only source of water is a well that we had secured as a community. When the evictions were carried out on Monday, we were hopeful that water will be available, but this has not been the case,” she said.

Mataka said the new owner had severed ties with the villagers to the extent of barring them from fetching water within the farm.

“Soon after the eviction and burning of our huts, they threw some rubble into the well that we used to fetch water from. It’s a double tragedy for us,” she said.

Mataka is among the six women who are breastfeeding on the roadside.

With several children dumped in the open, the villagers are failing to come to grips with the reality that they are homeless after nearly a decade eking out a living from the farm.

Another evictee, a mother of five, who is also breastfeeding, said it was a challenge to get water to wash children’s clothes.

“Access to water is a necessity, but we can’t have a drop of clean and potable water for our infants. Worse still, we are sleeping in the open. We wish our government could help us to get proper shelter, especially ahead of the rainy season that is upon us,” she said.

An elderly man weighed in: “We are not safe at all. They have the power to silence us and everything to support them, but we can’t fight them.

“When the evictions were carried out on Monday, we were hopeful that water will be available, but this has not been the case.”

The settlers attacked the Zanu PF-led government for failing to stop the evictions.

NewsDay