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(HERALD) Masvingo arid, yet not so dry

Masvingo arid, yet not so dry
By George Maponga

Nhema communal lands in the drought-prone Zaka District of Masvingo Province, is an area notable for being populous and arguably one of the poorest areas of Zimbabwe. Yet, it does not take anything more than a glimpse to see the vast potential that the district possesses.

Sadly, poor planning and project identification, have conspired to deny the people an opportunity for better livelihoods and transformation.

The Siya Dam, which stretches deep into the adjacent Bengura communal lands in Bikita, remains an untapped reservoir of agricultural potential.

Ironically, just besides the dam, stands drought ravaged maize crop, a sign of yet another failed agricultural season or, in other words, the eighth such miserable harvest since the turn of the millennium.

“Government should urgently do something for us because it really hurts us that every year we are forced to grapple with food shortages caused by drought yet we are watching plenty of water that could be used for irrigation,” says Mr Lameck Rusere from Rusere village in Nhema.

He adds: “It’s not a secret that, with, irrigation, we can achieve food self-reliance throughout Nhema communal lands.”

If this happens, the Siya Dam water, which flows hundreds of kilometres away to nourish the sugar cane plantations in the Lowveld while local crops succumb to the scourge of erratic rains every year, could finally come to good use.

The sad reality as it stands is that crops just a few metres from the banks of the dam have perennially wilted under the scorching sun, leaving thousands of families battling to elude starvation yet the water could have been easily drawn to their fields with very minimal costs, if any at all.

There are some fields that are situated in low lying areas to which the water can be easily directed by digging channels or canals and then leave the rest to gravity. Irrigation by gravity has been practised in many areas by resource-poor farmers who are in the same situation with the people that surround Siya Dam. The results have been fantastic and the food security and socio-economic lives of those communities have been left vastly improved.

A few kilometres to the West, there is Bindamombe Dam that was also completed in the seventies and has never been utilised since then save for a few gardeners at the spillway who harvest the excess water for their own purposes.

But it has been a case of false hope.

A couple of years ago, unprecedented euphoria gripped the sprawling Nhema communal lands after officials from the Department of Irrigation Development descended on the area to explore the possibility of an irrigation scheme.

“There was talk that Government would set up an irrigation scheme here four years ago but we do not know what happened to that idea which we hoped then would eliminate recurrent food shortages in this area caused by drought,” moaned Mrs Perina Zambuko of Nyanyiwa village.

“What hurts us most is that the catchment area for Siya Dam is partly in Nhema and Bengura communal lands across the dam in Bikita, but we are yet to benefit from the water in terms of improving food security,” she said.

The problem faced by the people of Nhema is a microcosm of the bigger food security challenges that have hamstrung Masvingo for a long time despite the province’s coveted and unparalleled position of having the biggest dam density and capacity in Zimbabwe.

Blessed with abundant water secured in several big and small dams and also boasting of many perennially flowing big rivers, Masvingo was supposed to have been the nerve centre of Zimbabwe’s irrigation development.

Irrigation has for long been viewed as the solution over reliance on rain-fed agriculture, which has not paid much dividends to the nation owing largely to recurrent drought.

Boasting of huge water reservoirs, such as the country’s largest inland water body Lake Mutirikwi in Masvingo District, the gargantuan Manyuchi Dam in Mwenezi, Manjirenji, Siya and Bangala dams in Zaka, Muzhwi Dam in Mashava and the slumbering Bindamombe Dam in Chivi, Masvingo has the potential to become the pacesetter in agricultural production and food security.

Several other smaller dams dotted around the province such as Matezva, Munjanganja and Ruti in Gutu, among others have remained underutilised while adjacent lands grapple with the perennial scourge of drought attributed to poor rains.

The perennially flowing rivers such as Runde, Mutirikwi, Chiredzi, and Mwenezi among others could also support smaller irrigation schemes in a grand irrigation development thrust that would put Masvingo at the apex of irrigation-based food security development in Zimbabwe.

There have been calls to expedite construction of the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam, but the situation on the ground, shows that the existing dams in Masvingo are heavily underutilised with only less than 10 percent of the province’s irrigation potential in use.

As of 2009, Masvingo had over 4 500 hectares under irrigation throughout the province out of a potential irrigable land of 30 000 hectares that could be supported by the existing water bodies.

The yawning chasm between land under irrigation and potential irrigable land in Masvingo would continue to haunt the province for years to come if no urgent action is taken to fully use the abundant water sources for agricultural production.

The chairman of the Masvingo Provincial Irrigation Development Committee, who is also Masvingo Governor and Resident Minister Titus Maluleke, has conceded that there are challenges in trying to fully harness abundant irrigation water in the province.

Governor Maluleke said there was a lot of work that needed to be done as the province was currently sleeping on its laurels as far as irrigation development was concerned.

“Indeed there is plenty of water that could be used for irrigation purposes and end chronic food shortages. We have to do a lot more to fully utilise the existing water bodies most of which are lying idle and are becoming white elephants while our people are starving due to erratic rains.

“Every time there is a drought, like this year, it reminds us of the mammoth work that we have to carry to make sure that we shift towards irrigation-fed agriculture. The water is there for us to irrigate but there are a number of challenges,” he said.

He pointed out the biggest stumbling block which was stifling irrigation development was lack of funding to set up new irrigation schemes and rehabilitate old ones.

“There are no funds, we have been appealing for funding but there are no funds to start new irrigation schemes or simply rehabilitate the old ones.

“There is need to repair canals, buy new pumps for the old irrigation schemes most of whose equipment is now obsolete.

“There are many irrigation schemes that were planned in most parts of the province but we cannot roll them out due to lack of funding,” he said.

Plans were, however, afoot to rehabilitate most of the existing irrigation schemes with support from Govern-ment and bilateral and multi-lateral donors some of whom have been warming up to the country since the formation of the inclusive Government.

Labels: DAMS, DROUGHT, IRRIGATION, LAMECK RUSERE, MASVINGO

posted by MrK @ 4:20 PM