About the region

People living in Matabeleland South Province in southern Zimbabwe are suffering from long-term water scarcity, significantly threatening their livelihoods and critical ecosystems. Severe environmental challenges, including deforestation, climate change, and land degradation, are compounding the problem, and contributing to chronic food shortages and widespread poverty – 70% of the population live in poverty.

In 2024 the President of Zimbabwe declared a national disaster in response to yet another extreme drought in the country, which caused severe damage to crops and food production, leading to widespread food shortages. As droughts become increasingly frequent and intense in the region, it reinforces how important it is to support communities here to strengthen their food and water security.

About our partner

Dabane Trust works with rural communities in the semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe to develop simple, appropriate and sustainable water abstraction and food production systems. An innovative organisation, one of Dabane’s successes was developing a new sustainable type of handpump, the Rowa, that makes water abstraction more efficient than other designs.

How we're working together

Since 2014, we have been supporting communities in southern Zimbabwe to construct sand dams and implement land conservation measures and tree planting. Not only will this create sources of clean water nearby, the regreening effect of sand dams and training in environmental protection measures will help to reverse consistent land degradation and should provide the communities with alternative income streams through sustainable agriculture.

Dabane also act as technical consultants for other projects across southern Africa. 

"Dabane has made its name by getting water out of sand rivers. Our next step is to ensure we don't over abstract. The answer to that, especially upstream, is sand dams. Without a doubt."

Stephen Hussey, Dabane Trust, Zimbabwe.