14 DAY TRIAL // Courtesy of the United Nations and the British Department of International Development, a remote village in Zimbabwe is soon to have access to clean water for the first time since 1962.
Both these organizations decided to step up and get actively involved in aiding the people of Pambili, a small community in Tsholotsho, near Harare.
Apparently, the 85 families living here are forced to drink dirty water for quite some time now, given the fact that the village has absolutely no boreholes.
However, this is soon to change, as said organizations announced their decision to make $50 million (roughly €40 million / ₤32 million) available for providing these people with proper fresh water sources.
Interestingly enough, while these remote villages struggle with this situation, those living in urban areas do have running water.
The explanation for this is quite simple, although a bit disturbing: seeing how Zimbabwe had been a colony up until the 1980, its administrative organizations only invested in making things easier for those living in the cities and for the colonizers.
According to Voice of America, Ignatius Chombo, the minister of urban and rural development, said, “The history of colonialism in Zimbabwe is not new. We were under colonial bondage until the year 1980.”
He further argues, “For the last 100 years the economy was favoring or only catering for those in the urban areas and white elites. So there was nothing that was done by the former colonizers we can talk about.”
On the other hand, it's been quite a while since Zimbabwean high official have had the opportunity to make decisions favoring local citizens, so one might question why they chose not to do so.
Administrative issues aside, the fact remains that quite a lot of Zimbabwe's citizens (about three million, to be more precise) are still far from having their most basic needs met.
Hopefully, once the afore-mentioned funds kick in, the situation here will begin to change for the better.