Where Water Flows, Health Follows

Good health cannot exist without clean water. In Zimbabwe, International Medical Corps is making sure that the two interrelated needs are met—by first ensuring that communities have access to clean water, and can maintain that access. From there, good health can follow.

Zimbabwe is facing significant water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) challenges. From December 2025 to March 2026, the country experienced heavy flooding that affected more than 41,000 people and resulted in extensive infrastructure damage and crop destruction, particularly in Manicaland, Mashonaland Central, Masvingo and Matabeleland South provinces. The flooding left communities without clean water, making them vulnerable to waterborne diseases such as cholera. It also caused latrines to collapse. Meanwhile, the border town of Beitbridge has seen a recent influx of migrants fleeing growing anti-immigrant violence in South Africa—a crisis that is creating a new set of needs related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

Responding to Flooding

To combat these challenges, International Medical Corps is responding in a variety of ways. In flood-affected communities, we have repaired damaged boreholes to restore access to clean water, and conducted water-quality monitoring and disinfection to ensure that the water people are drinking is safe. At healthcare facilities, we’ve built new latrines to replace those damaged by the floods, ensuring adequate sanitation and reducing rates of open defecation. We have solarized 45 locations where people access water, and rehabilitated more than 170 water pumps. We’ve also distributed hygiene kits to nearly 500 people in Beitbridge district, where we are now providing mobile toilets and water trucking, and educating people at the migrant reception center about proper hygiene practices.

Women gather after receiving hygiene kits in Beitbridge, which experienced persistent heavy rains, dam spillages and flash floods, resulting in widespread displacement of residents. About 8,000 households were affected nationwide by the flooding. Damage to crops, critical infrastructure, schools and health facilities has severely disrupted access to essential services and clean water while heightening the risk of waterborne disease.

A member of the International Medical Corps WASH team provides hygiene kits to Beitbridge district residents affected by months of catastrophic flooding across Zimbabwe. The distribution reached nearly 500 people, providing them with essential supplies, including soap, buckets and dental hygiene products.

Residents of Dulibadzimu Township collect clean water from the Utsanana community water kiosk, a borehole that International Medical Corps drilled— along with three others in high-density suburbs not yet connected to the municipal water system—to provide safe water and reduce the risk of cholera and typhoid.

Tapping into Solarized Water Schemes

In Novhe village, we upgraded a multi-use solarized piped water scheme as part of a project that aims to improve weather-resilient WASH services in Matabeleland South. The project included a borehole with a pump driven by solar power, as well as a communal garden that we established. The piped water scheme provides water to 70 households via six community taps, and provides water to Novhe Primary School’s 200 students and staff members through three dedicated taps.

In Beitbridge, we partnered with the Zimbabwean government to upgrade the Zvikuyu multiple-use solarized piped water scheme and high-yield borehole, which had originally been drilled in 1982. The project provides five water taps for 80 households and their livestock, as well as for a nearby primary school.

Drip irrigation provides a sustainable way to supply fresh water to the communal nutrition garden.

Donkeys drink from a trough fed by the solarized piped water scheme in Beitbridge. Originally drilled in 1982, the high-yield borehole was upgraded in 2025 by International Medical Corps and the Zimbabwean government.

Cattle search for water along a riverbed near the solarized water system in Beitbridge.

An aerial view of the communal nutrition garden in Novhe village.

Knowledge Transfer

It’s not enough to install boreholes and other sources of water, and walk away—we have to make sure that the communities with the water infrastructure have the knowledge and skills necessary to take care it. That’s where our educational initiatives come in.
International Medical Corps works with local pump caretakers and water-point committees to provide training on maintenance, asset management and proper WASH practices, helping to ensure the long-term resilience of these precious water sources and enabling communities to monitor effective water usage.

Across five districts of Masvingo province, International Medical Corps has established community health clubs (CHCs) as we have installed solar-powered pumps to pull water from boreholes. Since January 2025, we’ve established 200 CHCs with more than 6,000 members, providing training to these CHCs on a variety of practical and theoretical topics designed to improve health and hygiene behaviors and practices, including water storage, safe water sources, home hygiene and sanitation. We have also trained 200 community-based facilitators, who can form and monitor CHCs, as well as nearly 600 government stakeholders.

Though CHCs give communities pride of ownership in their water systems, they also do something more: they make water, sanitation and hygiene fun. Using music and drama, CHC members learn about important topics and use those same formats to share important WASH-related messages with other members of their community.

Angella Mashaba sits in her kitchen in Kanda village, where she is among 30 members of the Kubatana CHC. The program integrates participatory health and hygiene education with village savings-and-loan associations, encouraging households to save and invest in the construction and maintenance of their own latrines.

Members of the Kubatana CHC perform a skit involving WASH-related topics. The club has been recognized for its leadership in behavior-change communication, winning a district-wide singing competition where members used music to disseminate messages on handwashing, sanitation and community resource mobilization.

We established the Kubatana CHC in Kanda village in July 2025. The 30-member club is part of a provincial program that integrates WASH education with a village savings-and-loan association (VSLA). Because our projects do not fund the construction of latrines directly, we are using VSLA principles to help communities raise funds for the construction and maintenance of their own latrines and WASH infrastructure. Once the latrines are fully funded, the communities can then use these same principles to buy livestock or invest in other opportunities.

“The committees are now taking ownership of their own latrines,” says International Medical Corps Field Project Manager Wellington Sibanda. “Because of their understanding of the hygiene component, which they learn through participatory health and hygiene education, they take up the initiative on their own.”

Tashinga CHC member Sekai Chivenge demonstrates water collection from a protected well at a homestead in Gore village.

Sekai Chivenge displays foods grown in Gore village. Alongside community WASH interventions, the club highlights the importance of nutrition in health promotion to emphasize a holistic approach to well-being.

International Medical Corps has worked in Zimbabwe since 2008. Through a wide variety of WASH interventions, we are putting clean water at the forefront of community health by constructing water sources, bolstering long-term water resilience through training and caretaking, and integrating WASH into nutrition and community health practices.