Online Reporter
George Maponga-Masvingo Bureau
GOVERNMENT has taken the Tugwi-Mukosi combination master plan to communities in Masvingo and Chivi districts for their input and recommendations before drafting of the final master plan that will be adopted as the Second Republic pulls all the stops to ensure the country’s largest interior water body is fully utilised.
Cabinet last year approved the Tugwi-Mukosi draft plan and communities in Chivi and Masvingo districts will for the next 60 days have an opportunity to input in the final draft before adoption.
This will finally pave way for full exploitation of opportunities around the US$260 million reservoir.
Tugwi-Mukosi Dam bisects Chivi and Masvingo districts, which the two local authorities represented in the combination authority responsible for designating the landuse pattern around the water body.
The dam has potential to irrigate more than 40 000ha in Chivi and Masvingo districts and also vast swathes in the Lowveld covering parts of Mwenezi and Chiredzi.
Four top local universities namely the University of Zimbabwe, Midlands State University, National University of Science and Technology and Great Zimbabwe University were involved in crafting the Tugwi-Mukosi draft master plan.
Communities in Chivi and Masvingo district will have 60 days to scrutinise the draft plan and recommend additions and subtractions as the Government seeks to make sure the final master plan was compatible with the wishes and aspirations of locals who will be directly affected by the water body.
Under the master plan, a parks area straddling over 48 000 hectares will be created in the water body’s buffer zone. There will also be a parks development area that will straddle 1743ha near Zunga, adjacent to the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway.
There is also a new town that is planned in the Shongamiti area near the Ngundu-Tanganda highway, with 560ha earmarked for the new town while a golf course close to the town was allocated 313ha. Ngundu Growth point is also expected to rapidly expand owing to its proximity to Tugwi-Mukosi Dam, and 230ha were allocated for its future growth.
Under the draft plan, there will be a new modern hotel in the dam’s immediate vicinity together with a museum that will mainly house paraphernalia detailing the history of the water body that took nearly 2 decades to construct.
There will also be a harbour where recreational ships will dock and offer boat services and additional land for residential stands outside the dam’s perimeter in areas such as Maringire in Chivi and Gunikuni in Masvingo district.
The Tugwi-Mukosi multi-discplinary research institute will also be set up close to the dam and also a fish processing plant, offering a ready platform for cooperatives involved in commercial fishing to value add their produce. There will also be additional land for vibrant fishing farming close to the water body
A new bridge will be built linking the dam and the new town that will sprout with work also having started on the 17MW hydro power plant that will feed produce into the grid. There will also be an aerodrome for small aircraft carrying tourists to land near the water body.
Several water canals and pipelines will be constructed to supply irrigation water to various areas that have been earmarked for development of greenbelts.
In Masvingo district, a greenbelt straddling over 3400ha will be developed for irrigation using Tugwi-Mukosi water while the existing Banga Irrigation Scheme near Ngundu Growth point will be expanded to nearly 200ha.
A 280ha irrigation scheme will be developed close to the Ngundu-Tanganda highway while another 125ha scheme will be developed near Museva close to the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway.,
Chivi Rural District Councillor for Ward 28 Alfred Muzonikwa, under which a large part of Tugwi-Mukosi Dam falls, yesterday welcomed the Government’s move to allow communities in his district and the neighbouring Masvingo to have a closer look on the draft master plan.
“We are happy that the Government has given us up to 8 weeks to look at the draft master plan and also make our own recommendations as communities who will be directly affected by some of the projects earmarked under the master plan, we will take the plan to the people and hear their views and I am sure they will have something to say,’’ said Councillor Muzonikwa.
“I also want to point out that having this draft master plan is a big development itself because it means there will be increased investor interest, which is good for our area. Besides creation of employment opportunities there will also be massive irrigation development that will engender food security for our people so we are very happy,’’he said.
Chivi RDC chief executive Mr Tariro Matavire was upbeat that communities in Chivi and Masvingo will make an input that will enrich the master plan.
“We are happy that our people will also have a say on what will come out in the final plan, as a local authority we were involved in the drafting of the master plan and now the draft has been taken to stakeholders to also have their say so that it is an inclusive plan,’’ said Mr Matavire.
There are high hopes that adoption of the Tugwi-Mukosi master plan will usher a new epoch that will have socio-economic echoes in four districts namely Masvingo, Chivi, Mwenezi and Chiredzi.
Tugwi-Mukosi is the focal point of the Lowveld Integrated Irrigation Development Master plan that envisages the creation of a mammoth greenbelt covering over 200 000ha that will extend from Rutenga to the west to Chiredzi to the east.
he greenbelt will be under maize, wheat, sugar cane and citrus plantations.
