(HERALD) Project greens Kebvunde, raises cash

Project greens Kebvunde, raises cash
Tuesday, 11 October 2011 00:00
Noah Pito Features Correspondent

WHEN the Environmental Management Agency, then the Department of Natural Resources, donated fencing material to the Kebvunde community under Chief Nematombo in 2004, not many people imagined the material could trigger such an organised gardening project that has since emancipated 164 families from the shackles of poverty and hunger.

Having been forced for decades to preside over unnecessary disputes emanating mainly from brushwood gardens, then randomly scattered around Kebvunde Dam, a village head in the area Mr Dobiah Majinjiwa, had to approach EMA for a lasting solution to the environmental mismanagement that had reached alarming levels.

Indiscriminate cutting down of trees for repairing brushwood gardens destroyed by veld fires and termites coupled with unsustainable siting of the gardens triggered conflicts as villagers competed for the dwindling resources.

Recalls Majinjiwa: "After people had exhausted all the forests close to the dam, they had no wood left for construction of the gardens.

"Although some completely abandoned their projects as a result, the more daring ones continued scouting for trees and bushes that had survived so they could repair their gardens.

"In most cases they would do it during the night for fear of being arrested by the village authorities.

"We discovered that there was a real problem as all those parts of the catchment area finally developed gullies."

He said as he pointed to bare areas that he said used to be thickets two decades ago. When he approached EMA for a solution, Mr Majinjiwa was advised to sit down with his people and craft a constitution to guide them through a conservation-based gardening project which would as well yield financial gains for the villagers.

This saw the Majinjiwa Village merging with three other villages - Chidembo, Munjoma and Nyamadzawo - who also happened to be beneficiaries of the Kebvunde Dam water.

A detailed constitution was then crafted and forwarded to EMA for consideration.

The focus of the project, according to the constitution, was to increase vegetative cover in the catchment area of the dam, improve nutrition in the area through providing a variety of vegetables, improve biospecies diversity as well as raising per capita incomes of the villagers through the sale of vegetables.

As a result, the four villages received assistance from EMA in the form of 11 bundles of barbed wire, eight corner posts, two gates, 22 rolls of mesh wire, 114 standards and four bags of cement among other things.

These materials were then used to construct two large gardens that face each other from the south and northern sides of the dam.

The two lush gardens measuring about six hectares have since done proud to the 164 families whose standard of living they have now elevated.

According to Mr Majinjiwa, the communal gardening project which they named Kebvunde Consolidated Garden, has also fostered cordial relations among the villagers, most of whom are now working together with no more disputes as during the brushwood gardens' period.

Mr Majinjiwa said due to awareness programmes carried by EMA over the years, most people were now very positive to the need for conservation in the area.

Presently they have also embarked on improving sanitation in the gardening project with digging of four pits for the construction of Blair toilets having s been completed.

Each garden is set to have two latrines for the convenience of the members and a Magunje businessman, Cecil Kashiri has chipped in with enough cement for the construction of the latrines.

According to village head Zebediah Nyamadzawo, one of the committee members, everyone in the garden is a policeman and there are steadfast principles which members should abide by.

"Theft of whatever nature warrants instant dismissal from the project. No one is also allowed to bath, wash clothes or use any dangerous substances in the dam. Whenever there is a funeral in the area no one should be found working in the project until the deceased is buried.

Failure to comply results in a heavy fine. Ploughing in the catchment area is also among the biggest taboos," he said.

Today, the project supplies several areas with vegetables.
These include Magunje Growth point, Karoi and Chirundu.

The project has also assisted people from areas like Karereshi, Chiware and Mahororo who have since abandoned gardening projects following the drying up of the seasonal rivers they depended on.

Dozens of women from these areas daily throng the communal project to exchange their labour for vegetables.

After watering an agreed portion, one is given a corresponding amount of vegetables to take home for the family.

"These gardens are helping us to push through the dry season. It's a matter of just coming here and agreeing on the size of portion one is prepared to water so that one can get their bundles of vegetables," said 28-year old Sekesai Nyahuni of Chiware who had come for the food for work arrangement.

According to another member in the project, Mrs Simbisai Kamwaya of Chidembo Village, the garden has empowered villagers in the area particularly women who she said are now able to get an income which they can spend according to their own plans.

"My husband does not work and we have survived very well from the sale of vegetables. Every week groups of at least five members contribute amounts ranging between US$5 and US$10 each, towards a society and if it is one's turn to benefit that week, definitely one will be able to replenish all the basics like soap, cooking oil, sugar and parrafin.
The garden in fact has liberated women because we no longer look up to men for some of the family needs.

"Most of us have also managed to buy bags of cement for flooring our kitchen huts. Payment of school fees no longer gives us headache.
"When a child asks for a pen I no longer ask their father to provide because I can now do it myself," said Mrs Kamwaya.

Although their dam which was constructed in 1950 still holds enough water to serve the four villages in the area, the greatest challenge faced by the project is siltation of the dam.

Mr Lazarus Shonhiwa said there was need to scoop the dam whose capacity he said has since dwindled over the years due to large volumes of soil it swallowed.

Mr Shonhiwa also lamented the condition of the spill away which virtually no longer exists after it was destroyed by heavy rains during last seasons.

The same sentiments were also echoed by Mrs Magaret Bvumbanyama who said the dam was likely not to take them through the next five years due to siltation.

"As you can see the water has turned muddy and this is the biggest sign that all is not well with our dam.

"So if we could get some assistance from government to scoop out the excess mud the better.

"One other area of concern is that it was better if the project was turned into an irrigation scheme whereby people would turn to the use of pumps rather than carrying water in buckets on top of their heads. The distance we are moving is just too long.

Although the project has helped us much, carrying water in buckets on top of our heads is no joke, no wonder why we end up engaging other people to do the watering in exchange for vegetables.

Hurungwe District Environmental Officer Mr Munyaradzi Gandidzanwa said his department was looking at ways of saving Kebvunde Dam.

"We are soon to establish indigenous woodlots upstream as a way of improving biospecies diversity and arresting formation of gullies.

"So far we have been in the process of reclaiming the gullies in the catchment area south of the dam using vetiver grass.

"It has proved to be successful. In a matter of some few days we are going to supply beehives to the gardening project so that the beekeeping project runs alongside as spelt out in their constitution," he said.