Masvingo’s sleeping giant

everything in the drought-prone Gororo communal lands in Chivi South.
After a prolonged lull in the sound of caterpillars and front-end loaders mauling into mother earth, villagers in Gororo communal lands a few months ago woke up to find out that the confluence of Tokwe and Murkosi rivers was again a hive of activity.
The noise of the droning caterpillars and front-end leaders sometimes nauseates the villagers, most of who have been used to revel in the serenity of their area that is spiced up by the picturesque Gororo range of mountains, but they take solace from developments that are taking place at the confluence of Tokwe and Murkosi rivers where the Zimbabwean Government is building what will become Zimbabwe’s largest inland dam upon completion.
Condemned to living in the rain shadow zone of Masvingo’s agricultural landscape, the villagers wore effervescent smiles on their faces after Government announced the engagement of an Italian contractor, Salini Impregilio, to construct Tokwe-Murkosi Dam in 1997.
Government failed to pay its arrears to Salini Impregilio resulting in the suspension of construction work and the cancellation main contract in 1999.
Since then, a dark cloud had been hanging over Gororo communal lands as villagers in the drought-stricken area and the entire Masvingo province started wondering whether Tokwe-Murkosi Dam was ever going to be completed or would remain just a pipedream.
However, in April this year villagers woke up to the sound of caterpillars and other heavy machinery ploughing into mother earth at the dam site, a development that signalled resumption of construction work of Tokwe-Murkosi Dam after a 10-year sabbatical.
The resumption of construction of Tokwe- Murkosi Dam in April this year has rekindled hope amongst villagers in the drought-choked area that finally their food woes would be a thing of the past as they await the advent of a new epoch that will transform the agricultural configuration of the entire province of Masvingo province upon the huge reservoir’s completion in two years’ time.
The Tokwe-Murkosi Dam has been lauded as having the potential to turn parts of Masvingo province into a greenbelt due to the dam’s vast irrigation potential that will be engendered by the mammoth reservoir upon its completion putting Masvingo province at the pinnacle of agricultural productivity in Zimbabwe.
Mrs Emma Chindove of Mutema village in Nyikavanhu communal lands in Masvingo South said villagers in the area were brimming with confidence over the potential irrigation spin-offs that will be engendered by the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam.
Mrs Chindove said the resumption of construction work at Tokwe-Murkosi Dam in the first quarter of this year was a harbinger of good things to come for impoverished villagers in southern Masvingo district and parts of Chivi nearby.
“We can hardly wait for the dam to be completed because it has been a very long time since we have been waiting for this dam to be completed and we had lost all the hope after no progress was made over the past 10 years but we woke up one day in April this year to discover that work had resumed at the dam. It is really refreshing for people in Nyikavanhu communal lands,” said Mrs Chindove.
Another villager, Mr Jacob Masunda from Gororo village in Chivi, said they will continue to keep their fingers crossed until the dam was completed.
“We are happy that the building of Tokwe-Murkosi Dam has started but we do not know for how long it will continue because we have been waiting for this dam for a very long time and up to now nothing has materialised. However, there is overwhelming happiness amongst villagers here that we might be close to the final moment where the dam will be declared completed for people to start to benefit from its waters,” said Mr Masunda.
Masvingo Governor and Resident Minister Titus Maluleke says the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam held the key to resuscitating the dormant agricultural sector which has blamed for being the Achilles heel of the province which since independence has been repeatedly struggling to shake off the curse of perennial food shortages making it one of Zimbabwe’s basket cases.
Governor Maluleke said the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam – upon its completion – will engender the much needed irrigation impetus that will propel Masvingo towards food self-sufficiency while also drastically altering the socio-economic status of the province on its way to becoming of one the country’s breadbasket regions.
“It is really good news for us that work has started at Tokwe-Murkosi Dam after all these years without anything meaningful taking place, we feel proud as the people of Masvingo that at least there is a future ahead of us. The Tokwe-Murkosi Dam offers this province and its people boundless opportunities in the socio-economic spheres and the dam’s completion will be good news for the whole province,” said Governor Maluleke.
Speaking after a recent visit to assess progress in building the dam, Vice President Joice Mujuru said resumption of work at Tokwe-Murkosi Dam was an indication of Government’s commitment to complete the project despite challenges over the past 10 years which she blamed squarely on the negative impact of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Western nations.
Vice President Mujuru said Government would continue to pour money into Tokwe-Murkosi Dam until its completion in 2013 because of the dam’s vast potential to influence agriculture in Masvingo province through irrigation.
“As Government we are very happy with the progress that has been made at this dam project since work resumed in April this year after Government resumed payments to the main contractor. We are very happy with the progress and as Government we will continue to make sure that funds continue to be allocated for this project because we want our people in drought-prone parts of Masvingo province to benefit through irrigation.
“We are also optimistic the building of Tokwe-Murkosi Dam will be completed in the first quarter of 2013 because our thrust as Government is to make sure that people are able to use the dam’s irrigation water to enhance their agricultural capacity. The Tokwe-Murkosi Dam will definitely change lives upon its completion because of its vast irrigation potential,” said Vice President Mujuru.
The Vice President also stressed that besides venturing into food crops such as the staple maize villagers in southern Masvingo district and parts of Chivi will also be able to grow cash crops such as sugar cane exploiting their proximity to the sugar mills of Triangle and Hippo Valley which have a high unquenched appetite for sugar-cane to feed into their underutilised mills. Upon its completion the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam is anticipated to increase Zimbabwe sugar-cane production in the Lowveld by over 15 percent as thousands of irrigation land will be opened up to sugar-cane production in areas such as Matibi 2 communal and Nyikavanhu communal lands.
There are also fertilise soils that are yearning for irrigation water at the vast Nuanetsi Ranch where thousands of resettled farmers have been struggling to make a mark in the province’s agricultural sphere owing to a severe shortage of water and perennial droughts.
The Tokwe-Murkosi Dam, with a water holding capacity of 1,8 billion cubic metres, is expected to become Zimbabwe’s largest inland water body with a capacity to irrigate over 25 000 hectares depending on the method of irrigation.
With the entire Masvingo province currently under only less than 4 000 hectares under irrigation – excluding the Lowveld sugar cane plantations – the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam is expected to make Masvingo the province with the largest area under irrigation if the dam irrigation potential is exploited to the maximum.
Besides the vast agricultural potential, the Tokwe-Murkosi Dam will offer economic opportunities for a vibrant fisheries industry while the mountainous topography that will be within the dam’s flood area will also offer unlimited opportunities for tourism.
First mooted by the colonial authorities in the 1940s, the post-independence Zimbabwean Government eventually crystallised plans to build the huge water body by awarding the main contract to Salini Impregilio, an Italian company which, however, suspended construction work two years later citing payment problems.
The Tokwe-Murkosi Dam was supposed to have been completed in March 2002 at a cost only 370 million Zimbabwean dollars but the contract staggered before coming to a halt in 1999 due to payment problems which Government blamed on the sanctions-induced economic crisis that hit Zimbabwe severely compromising Government’s financial wherewithal to fund capital projects.
However,with renewed Government ability to pay for Tokwe-Murkosi Dam completion as evidenced by a US$20 million payout to Salini Impregilio in April this year, hope is finally beginning to inundate the people of Masvingo with the firm belief that come March 2013, water from Tokwe-Murkosi Dam will begin to irrigate the first crops in the drought-prone province.