Total Water Program

Neither the Zimbabwean land reform nor the water reform addresses how to assist those engaged in smallscale irrigation. The priority has been given to commercial waters and to redeveloping irrigation systems in what had been the large-scale commercial farming sector. In Zimbabwe, most communal area irrigation is outside of formal irrigation schemes. Neither the Zimbabwe water acts nor recent policy documents  any mention of how to support informal irrigation carried out in Zimbabwe’s communal areas and increasingly in the former commercial farm lands. This has to do with the division between the development functions for communal and resettlement areas tasked to Rural District Councils and central government, water management functions given to Catchment Councils, ZINWA and the Ministry of Water Development and the rural water supply functions which are separate from the new institutions of water reform.

Short Description of the Total Water Programme

The Goal of the Total Water Programme
The overall goal of the Total Water Programme is to improve the livelihood of people by mobilising the communities to greater care of and better use of water and the natural resources influencing the water cycle.

Description of the environmental problem
Water is essential for human beings, but it is becoming increasingly clear that water cannot be taken for granted. It is therefore essential that communities start the process of safeguarding their own water resources. The Total Water Programme (TWP) aims at mobilising community members in rural areas of Southern Africa to do this and giving them the tools to make this possible.
Diseases and poverty often result in short-term and unsustainable solutions, which cause deforestation and erosion. Where water catchment areas are laid bare, this means that much less water is held back and given the chance to recharge the groundwater tables. The result is instead that rivers run dry in the dry season and cause floods in the rainy season. This land degradation affects the livelihood of people as well as the local ecosystems.

Activities to address the environmental problems
The two year Total Water Programme will influence the water cycle by implementing activities that reduce land degradation. This is done by mobilising the communities to:

1. decide on how the common areas in the communities should be used. This means to decide which areas must be preserved - against tree felling, burning, uncontrolled grazing - which areas must be restored - by reducing erosion and planting trees - which areas can be used for grazing, etc.
2. start the process of restoring a number of degraded areas by planting trees and reducing soil erosion
3. increase sustainable use of natural resources such as firewood, building material, etc. by promoting improved systems, and systems which secure new supplies

The Project Outcome
The TWP aims at achieving the following project outcome after two years:

• Preservation of local water catchment areas
  Essential water catchment areas of 5 ha have been identified in each of five zones and rules to ensure their preservation have been set up and agreed upon.
• Restoration of degraded areas
  Three areas in each zone that are most affected by land degradation have been identified and restoration started by planting vetiver grass and/or trees
• Reduction of deforestation
  10,000 trees, bamboos and shrubs are planted for energy and building material, as part of agroforestry systems and as part of restoring degraded areas
  50 model fields of 0.5 ha are established, where improved fallowing is demonstrated - a system where firewood is produced while the soil is improved.
  500 households have build and use fuel saving stoves to reduce use of woodland resources

As incentive for the communities to take and implement such decisions - which have effects only in the long term - the programme assists the communities in mitigating the short term problems related to the issues of water and land degradation. This is done within the following three project components and with the following outcome after the two years of the TWP:

• Supply of safe drinking water and water for small scale irrigation
  25 wells are made by the community and equipped with rope pumps, with the result that 85% of the households have less than 1,000 m to safe water.
• Hygiene and sanitation
  The households without latrines are mobilised to build arbour latrines – where the waste is composted safely for use in treeplanting activities. 50 % of the households have latrines after two years.
• Water efficient farming
  50 model fields of 0.5 ha are established, where water efficient systems - such as conservation farming and growing crops between rows of vetiver grass - are demonstrated

Importance of the Project
The TWP with the following seven project components is important to both people and environment in the project area in a number of ways:

• The land degradation component assists the local communities in securing that land degradation is halted and enable them to safeguard the local resources for sustainable use – also for future generations
• The deforestation component will benefit the ones, mostly women and girls, who collect firewood for household energy. In the long run this will also improve the local water balances. 
• The restoration component results in restoration starting on selected degraded nature areas in the four TWP zones. These measures will reduce erosion and siltation of rivers, and will increase soil water retention and thus recharge the underground water table so that the boreholes and wells do not run dry, when the rains fail.
• The safe water component is important by reducing the workload for women and girls, who normally are the ones who fetch water. It will also result in improved health and fewer diseases caused by unsafe water, such as diarrhoea
• The sanitation component is important because it will reduce the number of diseases and child mortality. Furthermore the compost produced by the latrines will improve tree and food production.
   
  The VIP Toilet
• The component of water efficient farming is important because this will improve food security. It will also reduce the loss of valuable nutrients through erosion and improve groundwater recharge.
• The dissemination component is important by mobilising people in neighbouring areas to implement some of the same systems which can improve both livelihood and environment.

These benefits combine to improve the income, health and nutrition for the 10,000 people reached by the project as well as improve the environment in the local area. Furthermore the project impacts on neighbouring communities inspired to adopt the systems to mitigate land degradation in their areas.

Fazenda Jatoba, Bio-Diversity Project in Brazil

An inexpensive water pump made from local materials

Borehole drilling

Borehole drilling

Local Water Tank

Water pump in Bilibiza

Results due to water pump