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at the Nuanetsi Ranch from the Development Trust of Zimbabweto relocate nearly 4 000 families to pave way for the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam.
The development comes amid reports that Government requires at least US$19 million to compensate affected families.
There were fears that the completion of the giant Tokwe-Murkosi Dam scheduled for end of next year would be delayed as Government battles to secure land to resettle families.
Speaking during a tour of the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam site last week, Local Government, Rural and Urban
Development Minister Ignatius Chombo said DTZ offered Government land to resettle the families.
He said finer details of the land offer would be worked out this week to enable Government to start the relocation.
“We want to make sure that the families who will be relocated also benefit from the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam water and initially the families who will soon be relocated will each get about 0,5 hectares of land that has already been cleared at Nuanetsi Ranch,” said Minister Chombo.
“We want to make sure that families who should be immediately relocated are moved as soon as possible so that the construction of the dam continues without hitches.”
Minister Chombo said there were 1 000 families supposed to be relocated before the onset of the rain season to pave way for construction of five saddle dams.
He said the major challenge at the moment was to secure about US$19 million to compensate the relocated families.
Minister Chombo said Government remained committed to completing Tokwe-Murkosi Dam as scheduled.
Speaking during the same tour, Water Resources Development and Management Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo said construction of the dam was going according to schedule.
“We are happy with the rate at which work is proceeding, but the major challenge is that there is need to carry out some blasting and you cannot blast rocks when communities are in the vicinity,” he said.
Tokwe-Murkosi Dam is billed to become Zimbabwe’s largest inland dam upon completion, with a capacity of holding 1,8 billion cubic metres of water. The dam will irrigate about 25 000 hectares and its flood area straddles over 9 600 hectares.
Online Reporter