The role played by NGO’s in improving WASH in rural areas. Case study of Mbire Rural District.

The study sought to examine the role played by NGO’s in improving water and sanitation in Mbire rural district. Questionnaires were administered and interviews were used to assess the WASH conditions currently facing the population in Mbire and the extent to which the NGO’s intervention reached. The interventions of the NGO’s involved provision for water supply, toilet facilities and the questionnaires emphasized on how these intervention affected education, community development and the health of the community members. The study showed that before the intervention of the NGOs, water supply was very poor which led to the unhygienic practices, as 73.3% of the population was subjected to not portable water and the 26.7% had access to borehole water and not even in close proximity as some had to travel up to at least 2km to fetch water. The NGOs improved water supply by construction of boreholes, assisted in building toilet facilities at schools and at homesteads and also education on WASH programs and this helped in mainstreaming of gender according to UN SDG 5. However the NGOs were faced with the challenges such as public dependency syndrome, country and community internal policies, corruption and a lot of resistance to change from the community.

Introduction

According to sanitation perspectives report in the new Zimbabwe (2010), the post-independence era saw a boom in WASH supported by a highly motivated civil service, generous external support, receptive communities who demanded services of certain quality and standard and an enabling environment through national policies and strategies. Rural water supply is mainly wells and boreholes and boreholes malfunctioning costs the whole community as knowledge to fix most of the time is not at hand hence this leaves the people in that community only to fetch water from nearby places and mostly it is from rivers and wells. Due to financial constraints and other competing demands, the Government of Zimbabwe has failed to fully provide safe water for the people in the rural areas thus NGO’s have come in and complimented the works of the state by being actively involved in the water and sanitation sector through improved sanitation and hygiene education promotion campaigns. They came in order to help the country attain quality sanitation services with much emphasis on the rural sector. Rural areas in Mashonaland central faces severe water problems because they have not been considered a priority in water provision and failure to provision of water hinders attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Methods and Materials

A sample size of 39 people was interviewed all selected randomly from the 12 wards and local government households in each ward as a representation of the whole of Mbire. Purposive sampling was used for the data collection. The researcher used interviews to get an in depth understanding of the problems the community is facing and to what extent the NGOs have been helpful as using vernacular language made it easier. The researcher also used the use of desktop research method and through internet surfing, the researcher was able to get broader statistics of the knowledge gap. The use of observing also allowed the researcher to have a photographic knowledge of the situation on the ground.

Results and Analyses

This chapter gives an overview on the respondents coping strategies with the water and sanitation situation before and after NGO intervention in Mbire Rural District. The results showed that the number of people who fetched water from unsafe sources surpassed those who get their water from the boreholes because of very few boreholes within the area.

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