27/12/2025
Clean water ends struggles at Binga's Siansundu clinic
BINGA – At Siansundu Clinic in Mlibizi, Binga District, water now runs from taps where, for years, there was only waiting, queuing, and compromise.
For Nurse in Charge Gideon Muzamba, the sound of water inside the health facility is not just a convenience. It is the difference between safe care and daily risk, between dignity and exposure, between a functioning clinic and one constantly on the edge.
Siansundu Clinic is one of the government institutions that serves a total population of 23,415, Muzamba explains. Its reach stretches across three administrative wards, with the furthest village sitting 50 kilometers away. In this remote corner of Matabeleland North, far from Zimbabwe’s major cities and connected by some of the country’s most punishing roads, healthcare has long been shaped by scarcity. For years, water was the most critical absence.
The clinic was originally connected to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority piped water system. But the infrastructure collapsed, and the taps ran dry. What followed was an improvisation that defined daily life at the facility.
“We were using water from the community boreholes,” Muzamba says. “We were asking patients to assist in terms of fetching water for the clinic use.”
Patients, already unwell, became water carriers. Nurses left consultation rooms to join queues at boreholes, balancing buckets and bowls. Care was delayed not by a lack of skill or commitment, but by the simple reality that there was no water to wash hands, clean beds, give medication, or maintain hygiene.
“There was no way we could send patients to the boreholes,” Muzamba recalls. “Nurses used to go and queue for water at community boreholes.”
Those hours lost fetching water had consequences. Consultations stalled. Treatment slowed. In some cases, it became impossible to administer medication safely that required water to swallow supervised doses. Infection control, the most basic foundation of healthcare, was compromised daily.
That reality began to change when the Government of Zimbabwe, working in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, implemented a major intervention under the Climate Adaptation, Water and Energy Programme. This was the rehabilitation and upgrading of the 65-kilometer ZINWA piped water system in Mlibizi.
“When UNDP started this project, it was a very big relief,” Muzamba says. “We now have water within the health facility.”
The transformation was immediate. Water returned not only to the clinic but to nurses’ accommodation as well, restoring dignity and stability to staff whose lives had revolved around scarcity.
“Time spent fetching water is almost zero now,” he says. “The main aim is assisting the patient.”
At clinic level, that change is profound. Patients can now take their state doses on site, something that was previously difficult when water was scarce. Hygiene protocols that existed only on paper can now be followed in practice.
In the labor ward, the impact is stark. Childbirth is messy, unpredictable, and unforgiving of poor sanitation.
“People underestimate the importance of water,” Muzamba says. “When a mother is delivering, there is a lot of blood and a lot of waste that comes out. You need a lot of water to clean the area, to clean the bed and to clean the linen.”
Before, that water was often not there. Today, it is.
“Even the mother, she also needs water to bathe herself. She should always be clean all the time,” he says.
The return of water has also strengthened infection prevention. With running water at sinks, nurses can wash their hands before and after seeing each patient, a basic act that was once a logistical challenge.
“It’s now easy,” Muzamba says. “There is less transmission of infection from the patient to the nurse or from the nurse to the patient because there is now availability of water.”
The ripple effects extend beyond the labor ward. Patients presenting with diarrhea, common in areas affected by poor water and sanitation, now have access to nearby flush toilets, renovated with support from the Red Cross and sustained by the restored water supply.
“Sometimes when someone is totally pressed with diarrhea, it’s very difficult to run far,” Muzamba explains. “Now the flush toilets are easily accessed, and the water is running.”
Linen that was once destroyed due to inadequate washing is now cleaned and reused.
“The linen is always clean because the water is always available,” he says.
Beyond the clinic walls, the CAWEP intervention has reshaped daily life across Mlibizi. The rehabilitated and upgraded system reaches more than 40,000 people, supplying potable water to 10 schools and two clinics, providing bulk water to a 20-hectare irrigation scheme, and four one hectare community gardens. In total, 46,439 people benefit directly, with a further 159,982 reached indirectly through early warning systems.
The upgraded system is climate resilient by design. Pumps are mounted on floating rafts that follow receding water levels during the dry season. Three solar powered submersible pumps and one grid powered pump increase capacity. Additional storage and distribution tanks push water to the last mile. Solarisation of pump stations, treatment plants, and booster stations ensures supply even when electricity fails. The pipeline itself has been extended from 25 kilometers to 65 kilometers, reaching neighboring wards and separating raw water for irrigation from potable water for households.
The infrastructure supports livelihoods, too. Bulk water supplies irrigation schemes and community gardens benefiting 188 households and creating green jobs for 185 farmers operating under the ARDA V30 Accelerator irrigation management model.
At the clinic, the impact is measured not in hectares or kilometers but in lives safeguarded.
“There was a time we started sending mothers to the district hospital because we had not enough water,” Muzamba says. “But as it is now, they are available. They use water at their own time.”
In a district often defined by isolation, where the Bulawayo to Victoria Falls highway deteriorates past Kamativi and the road to Binga becomes a test of endurance, the presence of reliable water is a rare marker of investment and intent.
Zimbabwe’s Constitution guarantees the right to safe, clean, and potable water. At Siansundu Clinic, that right is no longer theoretical. It flows through taps, sinks, and toilets, reshaping healthcare delivery in ways both visible and quietly lifesaving.
“I just want to appreciate and thank UNDP for such a relief,” Muzamba says. “If it wasn’t UNDP, I don’t know, maybe you could not have found me. I could be queuing for water.”
His final hope is simple and shared across the community.
“My prayer is that this should take us long,” he says. “Even when UNDP is no longer there, we should continue enjoying the fruits of the hard work.”
At Siansundu Clinic, those fruits are measured in clean hands, safe births, and protected nurses and patients who no longer have to carry water before they can receive care.
Reporting by Anesu Masamvu recently in Binga
—
Join our WhatsApp Channel and be part of a growing community that relies on ZiFM Stereo News for fast, accurate, and credible updates from Zimbabwe and beyond.
Click here to subscribe: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb2R9WiLNSa6KqpemG3l
