It is a hot afternoon and a team of local men and a Chinese engineer donning work suits are busy operating a borehole drilling machine at the remote Rushinga business centre 210 km northeast of Harare.
After a while, the machine stops running and workers start removing equipment from the site.
"We have failed to get water. The machine has drilled 75 meters down but still we have not reached the water table. We have to quickly look for a new site where we can easily get water because people are eager and need water," said a Chinese official from China Jiangxi Corporation.
His statement is greeted with murmurs of dejection by expectant residents who had been milling around the site.
"This is disappointing. We were all hoping the drilling would succeed but anyway, we have to look for a new site now," said Farai Mukoka, a councilor for Rushinga District and one of the officials who were watching the drilling.
Like many parts in the country, Rushinga business center and the entire district has been hit by a water crisis, forcing residents and villagers to rely on the few boreholes that still have water as many have dried up.
Some residents at the business center have resorted to buying water from a resident who has a borehole and sells the water for 20 US cents per 20 liter bucket. A primary school and a clinic at the center now ask pupils and patients to bring 2 liter bottles of water everyday.
China Jiangxi Corporation has been quietly drilling boreholes in dry, remote rural parts of Zimbabwe since 2012 as part of Chinese government support to Zimbabwe.
The help has become much more pronounced this year, following an El-Nino induced drought that has left a quarter of the rural population in need of food aid.
The drought is the worst in three decades and has devastated harvests, having killed thousands of cattle and caused several dams in the country to dry up.
As a result, finding water has become a daily struggle for many Zimbabweans as both rural and urban local authorities ration the little water available.
The Chinese official from China Jiangxi Corporation said the firm was contracted by the Chinese government in 2012 to drill boreholes in Zimbabwe after the two governments signed a five-year cooperation agreement.
The Chinese government provides funds for the borehole project which is being implemented in three phases and targeting to sink about 500 boreholes in Zimbabwe.
The first phase ran from 2012 to 2013 and 64 boreholes were sunk in the dry Matabeleland region, while the second phase ran from 2014-2015 and saw 136 boreholes being sunk in Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East and Manicaland Provinces, the Chinese official said.
The third phase targeting 300 boreholes would run from 2016 to 2017, he said.
He said the company is targeting to drill 12 boreholes in Rushinga District and five had so far been completed.
"We will continue with our borehole project even during the rainy season until we complete all the boreholes," the official said.
The project has brought relief to residents of the business center and villagers in Rushinga, one of the most dry and remote areas of Zimbabwe.
Rushinga District administrator Hebert Mandizvidza thanked the Chinese government for the assistance, saying it had improved access to clean water by people in the district.
"This is so superb, so beautiful," Mandizvidza said as water started gushing out at another site just outside Rushinga business center where borehole drilling had just been completed.
"As you can see, villagers are quite happy as the water will also help their livestock," he said.
28 year-old Rotina Mazamva, who is expecting her second child and one of the village women who had rushed to the site to see the water gushing out, could not hide her joy.
"I can't wait for them to finish so that we can start to draw water from the borehole. It has been very difficult for us to get water since all the streams have dried up. I am very happy that we will now be able to have access to clean water," she said.
Young boys watching the gushing water were all smiles and said they will now be spared the agony of travelling long distances to fetch water for their cattle.
At yet at another site in the district, village women were seen towards sunset trooping to a Chinese drilled borehole to fetch water.
The borehole was drilled in 2013 and has never dried up like what others in the same area have done.
"We are very grateful to the Chinese government for drilling this borehole. Our lives have been transformed because we don't have water problems. Instead of what others are doing spending most of their time looking for water, we are using ours to do productive work," said 56 year-old Florence Mazvidza, a grandmother of seven and chairperson of the village committee tasked with looking after the borehole.
A single purchase
