IN the late afternoon glow of early September, in the warm embrace of Mutare District’s Ward 18, Mudzimundiringe, widow Rudo Chinobateyi, 65, stands quietly, her eyes wide with awe as she surveys her flourishing garden.
Here, in Muchisi Village, the scene unfolding before her at her little abode is one she never thought possible—a garden brimming with life against all odds.
The vibrant greens sway softly in the breeze—luscious vegetables and resilient maize stalks that seem to stretch towards the sky in gratitude.
To an outsider, these may look like simple plants, but to Chinobateyi, they symbolise resilience, a testament to a future she had once feared was slipping through her fingers.
More than just a plot of land, this garden is her family of seven's lifeline, a promise that no one under her roof will go to bed hungry.
Just a few months ago, such a transformation was unimaginable. The 2023/24 agricultural season had arrived with an El Niño-induced drought, leaving a trail of devastation across Zimbabwe. With below-average rainfall, water bodies had sunk to record lows, and Mutare—capital of the Manicaland Province—was no exception.
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Crisis alerts were issued by the American based Famine Early Warning Systems Network, and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority declared the season one of the worst in recent memory.
For Rudo and many like her, hope seemed as elusive as the rains because their crops—those essential pillars of survival—were withering beneath a sun that showed no mercy. Further, as each day passed, the fear of empty pots loomed larger for the subsistence farming dependent village.
But, just when despair began to feel like an unwanted but permanent guest, a solution rose from beneath the parched earth—a community borehole.
Simple, unassuming, and nearby, it offered salvation from the worst of the climate-induced hardship. For Chinobateyi, that borehole turned an overwhelming drought into a story of resilience and hope.
“I do gardening, and I am a subsistence farmer. I also use the water for daily household activities for domestic purposes such as drinking, laundry and bathing,” Chinobateyi shares, her eyes reflecting both gratitude and determination.
The borehole, called Musasa, had been created for the community since 1998, providing water to residents yearly.
Chinobateyi walks there daily, along with others from her village, to fetch water for her home.
But this year’s drought was unlike any they had seen before, and there were fears the borehole would run dry under the relentless pressure of El Niño.
However, thanks to the carbon offset solutions and sustainability United Kingdom based organisation, CO2 Balance, a fix emerged.
CO2 balance had been looking for a partner who would implement a project here in Zimbabwe to generate carbon credits for them.
“In Zimbabwe, 32,7% of people in rural areas lack access to an improved water source, which contrasts starkly with the 97% coverage in urban areas. This issue is compounded by the economic problems faced by Zimbabwe in recent years, which have contributed to 75% of rural water points becoming dysfunctional,” CO2 Balance said.
“In a country where the vast majority of rural people rely on burning solid fuels for their cooking needs and have no option but to boil water in order to make it safe, this constitutes a major source of CO2 emissions.
“CO2balance have partnered with local NGO Diocese of Mutare Community Care Programme (DOMCCP) to rehabilitate broken down boreholes in Chipinge and Mutare Rural districts and to empower sustainable community-level structures to manage and maintain the boreholes – these include Water Point Committees and Village Pump Minders.”
Through this partnership, by offsetting the need of communities such as the Muchisi Village to use wood to boil borehole water, CO2 Balance was able to produce 174 324 carbon credits as of August.
Of these amount, 81 491 credits had been retired leaving just 92 833 active from 16 borehole projects in Chipinge and Mutare.
These statistics are according to the world’s leading carbon credits database, the American based Voluntary Registry Offsets Database.
German online statistics platform, Statista, reports that the average price of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) credits was US$6,53 early this year, making CO2 Balance's active credits worth over US$600 000.
“The boreholes in CO2balance’s Zimbabwe projects ensure that thousands of people have access to sufficient safe water, reducing the occurrence of water borne diseases and removing the need to boil the water as a treatment method, which exposes households to household air pollution,” CO2 Balance said.
“This saves thousands of tonnes of firewood per year and reduces CO2 emissions. The provision of safe water sources in communities removes the need to collect firewood for boiling and reduces the time spent collecting water, a burden which disproportionately falls on women and children.”
DOMCCP director Robert Munhenga said with CO2 Balance’s assistance, these boreholes have provided clean water not only for drinking but also for subsistence farming activities.
“On our part, we maintain the borehole because what we did is we looked at boreholes that were not functional and rehabilitated them. After the rehabilitation, we monitor the function of those boreholes, and then we have got regular collection of water samples to find out if the water is suitable for human consumption,” he said.
He said their borehole team comprised of a member from Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, Ministry of Health and Child Care and Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife.
“We have got quite a big number of boreholes, which have got communal gardens, and we have got a garden at the borehole. But for this area, they have got sufficient water, but in areas where they do not have enough, we have got those communal gardens,” Munhenge said.
He said the partnership with CO2 Balanced was to reduce the carbon footprint in the areas where they operated in.
“So, when we came in, our idea was to make sure that we reduce the amount of firewood that these people use to boil the water because health insists that they should boil the water and make it green so that they do not get affected by the diseases,” Munhenge said.
The need to boil water with wood comes from the fact that there are daily power cuts.
“And we came in now and looked at areas where boreholes were not functional because boreholes have got water which is already clean,” Munhenge said.
So, they rehabilitated boreholes that were not functioning and then people started getting water for drinking and for subsistence farming.
“We saw a remarkable decrease in the amount of firewood that was being used for boiling water for consumption at home. And that decline in the use of firewood will reduce the carbon footprint,” Munhenge added.
Statistics provided to the paper show that CO2 Balance and DOMCCP partnership has led to 120 boreholes being placed under the program.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, as of April, 2022, Mutare had a population of 531 594, of which, 306 790 and 224804 were living in the rural and urban areas, respectively.
Agriculture is one of eight main economic activities with the others being manufacturing, diamond, gold mining, timber, tea, coffee plantations, and tourism.
Africa Voluntary Carbon Credits Market Forum founder and executive director Anglistone Thembani Sibanda said there were over 147 methods of developing carbon credits, and they are cross cutting.
“They include as many sectors, from energy, agriculture, biodiversity conservation (wildlife) wetlands conservation, plastic waste removal, afforestation and reforestation, methane capture, methane reduction in feed management for livestock, solid waste management for cities, water management systems, transport sector. It's about creativity, research and innovation," he said.
Independent researcher and academic, Dr Joyce Chuma said if Zimbabwe developed a well-structured carbon market strategy, built necessary capacity and effectively participated in global carbon markets, agriculture would be a priority area.
“I will assume priority projects will be focusing on sustainable land use (forestry, agriculture), renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro), and energy efficiency. Africa accounted for 11% of total carbon credits issued between 2016 and 2021. However, the region is currently generating 2% of it's potential annual potential,” she said.
“If Africa realizes it's full potential then that could be 5,5-22%. Taking the average of 13,75% and assuming the estimated global carbon trading market size of US$9 446,1 billion by 2033. Africa carbon market can potentially be worth approximately US$1 299,6 billion.”
She added: “Assuming a conservative value of 2-5% as Zimbabwe's share, the country's carbon market can potentially be worth between US$25,99 - US$64,98 billion by 2033 based on the countries natural endowments and landscape.”
She said the country needed to focus on areas where it had a comparative advantage.
“It's not every project that we need to focus on let's focus on the areas that resonate with our national needs hence l propose sustainable land use (forestry and agriculture), renewable energy, energy efficiency, water conservation, blue Carbon, community based projects, waste management, and disaster risk reduction. However, that is if we do it right,” she said.
Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate, Climate Change Management director Washington Zhakata said the country was obligated to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by 40 % per capita by 2030.
“And this has to come out of also these projects on carbon trading, because trading on carbon, it refers to trade that results in projects that result in emission reductions. So, what else would we do? We would need now to take stock of all the projects and that they also contribute to emission reductions in the country, because without taking stock of all activities from the industry, waste sector, energy sector, forestry, agriculture, and so forth, we would not manage to meet our obligations,” he said.
Last year, the government issued Statutory Instrument 150 of 2023 Carbon Credits Trading (General) Regulations that offered guidelines in how these instruments could be generated and traded locally.
However, there is not implementing legislation, making it impossible for government to benefit from carbon credits.
A framework is currently being developed Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate to rectify the situation.
Through partnerships like the one between CO2 Balance and DOMCCP, subsistence farmers in Mutare, such as Rudo Chinobateyi, can look forward to more secure, sustainable livelihoods, with gardens that are symbols of hope and resilience blossoming amid the challenges of climate change.