By Fanuel Chinowaita
HAKWATA, CHIPINGE — The road to Hakwata tells you almost everything about the village.
About 240 kilometres from Mutare, deep in Zimbabwe’s remote eastern reaches, the journey ends among mud houses, dusty paths and hills stretching towards the Mozambique border.
For years, Hakwata’s isolation meant more than distance.
Water was far away. Transport was scarce. Firewood was a necessity. Electricity was almost unimaginable.
Then the sun began changing the village.
Today, a 200-kilowatt solar mini-grid is powering homes, businesses and essential services, with the wider project benefiting about 12 500 people. UNDP describes the Hakwata installation as part of a broader climate adaptation model linking renewable energy with water, livelihoods and rural development.
But for villagers, the transformation is not measured in kilowatts.
It is measured in the kilometres no longer walked for water.
It is measured in children arriving at school on time.
It is measured in businesses that can now operate.
And it is measured in trees that no longer have to be cut down for firewood.
“We were not what we are today,” villager Ndaizivei Makuyana said, reflecting on the changes brought by the project.
Makuyana said Hakwata now has five solarised boreholes, a NetOne booster powered by solar energy, an oil machine, a grinding mill, a garden and a bakery. Some households have also received small solar devices.
Electric tricycles, which can be charged using the new energy supply, have added another dimension to village life.
Makuyana said residents previously had to walk more than 12 kilometres to reach places where transport was available.
Now, the tricycles are helping bridge that gap.
But the journey towards development is far from complete.
“The road is in a very bad state and needs to be improved,” Makuyana said.
Her concern captures one of the contradictions of Hakwata’s transformation. Electricity can power a bakery, but the bakery still needs a road to reach its customers. Water can support agriculture, but farmers need transport to take their produce to market.
The solar revolution, in other words, has not erased Hakwata’s isolation.
It has simply given the village new tools with which to fight it.
Hakwata’s transformation is part of the Climate Adaptation Water and Energy Programme, or CAWEP, a climate resilience programme launched in 2022 and funded by the United Kingdom Government and implemented by UNDP in partnership with the Government of Zimbabwe and other stakeholders.
The programme is built around the Water-Energy-Food Nexus, recognising that climate adaptation, water security, energy access and food production are inseparable.
Its work focuses on vulnerable communities and institutions, developing climate-resilient water infrastructure and renewable energy systems while supporting agriculture, livelihoods and clean cooking. UNDP says Hakwata is one of the communities demonstrating how these interventions can work together.
And in Hakwata, the connection between climate and everyday survival is difficult to miss.
Before the project, villagers relied on boreholes that frequently broke down and travelled long distances to collect water.
For women and girls, water collection could consume hours.
Girls could spend part of the morning searching for water before heading to school, while women lost valuable time that could have been spent farming, running businesses or caring for their families.
The introduction of solar-powered boreholes and piped water has changed that equation.
Water is now closer to households.
But it is also closer to opportunity.
A garden can be irrigated.
A bakery can operate.
Food can be produced.
And women can spend less time carrying water and more time generating income.
That is where climate adaptation becomes tangible.
It is no longer simply a policy phrase discussed in conference rooms.
It is a borehole pumping water.
It is a garden producing food.
It is a woman gaining hours in her day.
It is a child reaching school before lessons begin.
The environmental benefits are equally important.
Hakwata has household biogas digesters that provide an alternative to firewood for cooking. UNDP has previously described biogas in Hakwata as a way of reducing the burden of firewood collection while improving household health and reducing pressure on forests.
For a community that has traditionally depended heavily on firewood, the change carries both environmental and social significance.
Less firewood means less pressure on trees.
Cleaner cooking means less smoke inside homes.
And for women, who often bear the burden of collecting firewood, it means less time spent walking into the surrounding hills.
The impact is also being felt at Hakwata Primary School.
A teacher said the school’s pass rate had increased from about 60% to 70%, while enrolment had risen from approximately 600 pupils to 800.
Before the solar system, she said, teachers would leave for better-serviced schools.
The improved infrastructure has helped create a different environment.
For girls, the benefits begin before they reach the classroom.
A child who no longer has to spend the morning looking for water has more time to prepare for school.
In Hakwata, therefore, water infrastructure has become part of the education story.
The solar grid has also created space for enterprise.
The grinding mill, oil machine and bakery are examples of productive activities that require reliable energy.
The garden links water and electricity to food production.
The electric tricycles connect renewable energy to transport and income.
And the NetOne booster is connecting a remote community to the wider communications network.
One intervention has created a chain of possibilities.
Water supports agriculture.
Energy supports businesses.
Businesses create income.
Income strengthens household resilience.
And cleaner energy reduces pressure on the environment.
Dr Ayodele Odusola, UNDP Representative in Zimbabwe, has previously described the Hakwata model as more than an electricity project.
“The microgrid will not only bring clean power to the Hakwata community but also sets the example for similar renewable energy projects across the country designed to bridge the energy access gap in remote areas, providing rural communities with reliable and clean energy,” Odusola said.
During the commissioning of the project, Odusola said the solar mini-grid was “not just providing electricity”, but was empowering people, powering businesses and supporting sustainable development across several fronts.
He also credited the British Government for its financial support and the Government of Zimbabwe for its partnership in bringing the project to the community.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Evelyn Ndlovu, who was the guest at the Hakwata event, also placed electricity and water at the centre of rural development.
“There is no development without electricity and water,” Ndlovu said.
Looking around Hakwata, she said she had seen both.
The minister said government was ready to upgrade rural areas through the National Development Strategy frameworks and pointed to emerging industries in Hakwata.
The message from the project partners is clear: climate resilience cannot be separated from development.
CAWEP has sought to expand access to climate-resilient water infrastructure, renewable energy, irrigation and climate-smart agriculture while promoting clean cooking and sustainable natural-resource management. It has also sought to strengthen livelihoods, particularly among women and vulnerable communities.
But Hakwata’s story also exposes what remains unfinished.
The road is still bad.
The village remains remote.
Many houses are still made of mud.
Solar infrastructure requires maintenance.
Businesses need markets.
Farmers need roads.
And communities need the skills and resources to sustain infrastructure after development partners leave.
The Hakwata project began in 2023 and, according to the project information supplied for the field visit, is scheduled to run until November 30, 2026. UNDP’s current project page gives the wider CAWEP programme an end date of March 2027, reflecting the distinction between the broader programme and individual project timelines.
That makes sustainability the next test.
The greatest achievement will not simply be that Hakwata received solar power.
It will be whether villagers can use that power to build businesses, improve livelihoods, protect their environment and maintain the systems long after the project cycle ends.
For now, however, the difference is visible.
There are solar-powered boreholes where villagers once walked long distances for water.
There are biogas digesters where firewood once dominated household cooking.
There is a bakery, a grinding mill and a garden.
There are electric tricycles where people once walked more than 12 kilometres to find transport.
There is a telecommunications booster where connectivity was once limited.
And there are children who no longer have to choose between fetching water and getting to school on time.
Hakwata is not suddenly an urban centre.
It remains a remote rural community on the edge of Zimbabwe, close to Mozambique and far from the country’s major centres.
But its relationship with that isolation has changed.
The village now has something it did not have before: infrastructure capable of turning its natural resources into resilience.
The sun provides the energy.
Water provides the foundation.
Agriculture provides food.
Clean cooking protects the forests.
Businesses create livelihoods.
And the community is beginning to turn all of these pieces into a different future.
Climate change is often discussed through statistics — temperatures, rainfall, droughts, emissions and deforestation.
In Hakwata, however, climate change is experienced through the daily struggle for water, food, energy and income.
And climate adaptation is experienced in equally ordinary ways.
It is the woman who no longer has to walk kilometres for water.
It is the farmer who can irrigate a garden.
It is the family that can cook using biogas.
It is the child who arrives at school on time.
It is the trader who can use an electric tricycle to reach a market.
It is the village that is beginning to produce instead of simply survive.
The road into Hakwata may still be rough.
But the village itself is moving.
And increasingly, it is moving on power from the sun.