The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT has allocated $8 million towards the construction of Buhera District’s flagship of hope – Marovanyati Dam – whose construction was abandoned in 2007 due to lack of funding.
The development was announced by the First Lady, Dr Amai Grace Mugabe last Friday as she responded to a long list of interventions required in the drought-inflicted district presented by the Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Cde Mandi Chimene.
Cde Chimene said Buhera was an entirely communal district whose quest for growth and self-sufficiency always suffer a deadly blend of erratic rains and severe temperatures — making rain-fed agriculture untenable.
Cde Chimene had told the First Lady that provision of water for both domestic and agricultural purposes constitutes one of the greatest challenges of sustainable development in Buhera — and the impact of investing in water harvesting and its potential to ameliorate its development and agricultural complexion could not be underestimated.
In response, Dr Mugabe said Government had availed $8m for Marovanyati Dam construction through the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate headed by Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri.
“We know this area is blighted with a combination of erratic rains and high temperatures which makes rain fed-agriculture impossible. Government has allocated $8 million towards the construction of Marovanyati Dam through the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate headed by Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri,” said Dr Amai Mugabe.
Cde Muchinguri-Kashiri confirmed the funding without giving much detail.
Efforts to get an insight into when the project was expected to kick start, since the contractor — China Jiangxi International Corporation, had long vacated the site, were unfruitful as Cde Muchinguri-Kashiri was not picking calls.
Cde Chimene said she was also making a follow-up to establish when construction would begin.
“Check with me next week I think the details will be on my desk. I will make a follow up because I want to see progress,” said Cde Chimene.
Marovanyati Dam is located on the Mwerihari River and its intended purpose is to provide domestic, industrial water supply to Murambinda and irrigation of 3 650ha of agricultural land.
The contract was awarded to China Jiangxi International Corporation at a contract price of Z$2,096,519,660.00 in August 2002 under TBR No. 282 and construction commenced in November 2003 amid pomp and fun-fare and was expected to be complete in 2009.
The project has been moribund after the contractor suspended works with effect from November 2007 due to lack of funding.
The project was at 40 percent complete when work stopped.
When work was suspended, the clearing of dam and spillway foundations, soft excavations of spillway approach and return channel, cut off excavations and grouting, outlet works soft and hard excavations had been completed.
A total of 87m of the outlet works concrete D-tunnel were concreted and 20m still remains. A substantial part of the core trench was backfilled including the river bed section, while the hard excavation of the spillway approach and return channel were in progress at the time of the suspension.
The crushing of concrete stone aggregate was in progress before suspension, and now gives an ugly look to the area.
It will be 470 meters long and 30 meters at its deepest, if complete. At least $18 million is now needed for its excavation work, outlay work and the dam wall construction.
More than 70 000 families near Murambinda Growth Point in Buhera are earmarked to benefit from it irrigation wise.
Former Buhera Rural District Council head, Mr Kripwell Matsinde, recently implored Government to prioritise the project since demand for water has never been as great as it is today and the foundation of rural livelihoods is food security and self-sufficiency in the district can be achieved only if all food needs are met through local supplies.
“If we harvest water from Marovanyati, we will create a green belt in areas like Murambinda, Tangwena, Gamanya, Gaza, Chiwese, St Alban’s and Chikwangwani – which have irrigable soils,” said Mr Matsinde.
Agricultural development based on water conservation and irrigation is often considered a promising avenue for poverty alleviation in rural areas.
“For the poorest, an increase in domestic agricultural production is key to improving food security. This explains why expectations were high when the project was started. We were happy with the prospects irrigated agriculture to ensure household food security, as zviripi manje,” he quipped.
Mr Magadza, a former employee of Zinwa, said the availability of water for a small domestic garden plot, usually managed by women, can make a significant difference to household nutrition and thus contribute to improved livelihoods.
The effect is small scale and irrigated agriculture with its higher crop yields is expected to have greater impact on the incidence of poverty and malnutrition.
This effect is expected regardless of whether the irrigation project is small or large scale. However, recent studies have shown that poverty alleviation as a result of irrigation development requires that the project be geared towards the needs of the poor.
Since some villagers lack sound farming knowledge, the gap could be bridged through training in the technical aspects of irrigation, community organisation and marketing, access to credit, capital or land.
The contribution from irrigated agriculture to achieving this goal will be critical as irrigation provides a powerful management tool against the vagaries of rainfall.
Irrigation also makes it economically attractive to grow high-yielding crops and to apply the adequate plant nutrition and pest control required in order to obtain the full potential of these modern varieties.
