Vusumuzi Dube
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE country has adequate water supplies to cater for the ongoing winter cropping season and covering a significant part of the early summer cropping period despite a drop in the national dam average.
Giving an update on the national water situation, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) corporate communications and marketing manager Mrs Majorie Munyonga, however, said communities should be mindful of the way they utilise water.
“Water levels in the country’s major dams remain on a declining trajectory owing to the intensified winter cropping irrigation activity and water drawdowns by local authorities for domestic purposes. As at July 20, 2023, the national dam level average had dropped to 86,8 percent,” said Mrs Munyonga.
She, however, said the national dam level average remained higher than the 68,8 percent that is normally expected during this time of the year.
“This means the country has sufficient water to sustain the current winter cropping and early summer cropping irrigation requirements. Cities, towns, growth points and rural service centres are also water secure with the majority of the dams holding sufficient water to see these centres through to the next rainy season,” said Mrs Munyonga.
Dams like Bubi-Lupane, Ngwenya, Insukamini, Pollards, Khami and Exchange under the Gwayi Catchment area in Matabeleland North Province are used largely for irrigation and water supply purposes. They are between 61 and 95 percent full and can sustain the communities surrounding them.
Mtshabezi, Mzingwane, Upper and Lower Ncema, Zhovhe, Insiza and Antelope Dams under
Umzingwane Catchment are in Matabeleland South Province and are fairly full despite low percentages being recorded in Lower Ncema which is 22,7 percent full while Upper Ncema is at 31,5 percent full.
“Zinwa reminds water users across the board that water is a finite resource which they need to use efficiently and sparingly.
All users drawing raw water from Zinwa managed dams are advised to ensure that their water use is in terms of water abstraction agreements as is required by the law. These agreements also make it possible for Zinwa to efficiently and sustainably allocate the available water amongst competing needs,” added Mrs Munyonga.
Zimbabwe has put 86 000 hectares under winter wheat this year, under irrigation as the country targets to achieve food self-sufficiency by 2030.
Irrigation schemes like Guyu-Chelsea in Matabeleland South Province’s Gwanda District which recorded a poor harvest last year due to power cuts are expecting improved yields as water supplies have increased.
Commenting on these developments, Mr Lancelot Matange from the Department of Civil and Water Engineering at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) raised the need for improved catchment management by reducing sedimentation and cutting down of trees near water ways or within some important catchments.
“I feel we need to do more mapping of our groundwater resources. We need more groundwater mapping, more groundwater exploration. We need a figure of our ground water resources that is workable with. Once we have that figure that is when we can decide on how we can go about utilising the groundwater resources,” he said.
He said apart from the people who are drilling boreholes everywhere, ground water has not been utilised that much.
“We should do actual mapping of ground water reserves so that we know the exact amount of ground water resources so that we do not exhaust them. We will then be able to know when we are exceeding the actual figures. This makes mapping important,” said Mr Matange.
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