Chivi RDC in drive to create greenbelt

George Maponga
Masvingo Bureau
Chivi District continues to make inroads towards achieving food self-sufficiency, with the local rural district council initiating plans to create an agricultural greenbelt that will stretch from Mhandamabwe Business Centre to Chivi Growth Point.

The envisioned greenbelt will use idle water in Muzhwi Dam, which is over 110 percent full and spilling, following the good rains in the current rainy season.

Chivi Rural District Council (RDC) has since deployed some of its engineers to start a feasibility study on the planned greenbelt, working closely with the Department of Irrigation Services in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement.

This also comes as President Mnangagwa last December commissioned Chombwe Piped Water Scheme that is already benefiting thousands of households in the district with potable water, irrigation of smallholder gardens and for livestock.

Government this year increased Chivi RDC’s devolution war chest to over $200 million specifically to consolidate the gains of the Chombwe water project.

Chivi RDC chair, Councillor Godfrey Mukungunugwa, recently disclosed that the local authority was eyeing a greenbelt to be sustained by Muzhwi Dam water.

“Our engineers have already started studies on the ground, working together with the Department of Irrigation Services to delineate the specific areas that will be covered by the green belt from Bwanya communal lands in Madamombe near Mhandamabwe right up to Chivi Growth point,” he said.

“We were allocated more than $200 million under devolution this year and the bulk of the funding we are committing to the development of that greenbelt which we hope will complement the Chombwe piped water scheme.”

Clr Mukungunugwa said the total capital outlay required to finance the greenbelt rollout will only be determined upon completion of a preliminary feasibility study.

“Chivi has abundant and idle water in Muzhwi Dam, which with careful planning, we can use to end chronic food shortages caused by poor rains,” he said. “We want to build on the success story of Chombwe.”

In the medium to long-term, Clr Mukungunugwa said there were plans to extend the greenbelt to the shores of Tugwi-Mukosi Dam.

“Some private individuals have undertaken to assist communities in wards 16, 18, 19 and 20 with irrigation equipment for them to use Tugwi-Mukosi Dam for food production and this will also see a greenbelt shaping up from near the dam, covering areas like Maringire and Chibi Turn-Off,” he said.

Besides Muzhwi, which over the years had been principally used to irrigate Lowveld cane fields more than 200km away, Chivi is also home to Bindamombe Dam which only supports small localised irrigation schemes.

Chivi is arguably one of Masvingo’s driest districts and is often plagued by droughts caused by unreliable and poor rainfall.

Climate change has worsened Chivi’s plight, casting the spotlight on idle dams such as Muzhwi and Bindamombe to be harnessed for food production under irrigation.