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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
MANICALAND province has mooted a plan for rural re-organisation, which will see the remodelling of homes as part of efforts to modernise and transform rural areas and free up land to accommodate more people.
The plan will be modelled around the 500 homes being constructed for Cyclone Idai victims by Econet Wireless.
Provincial administrator Mr Edgars Seenza said last week the province had plenty of idle land which authorities had failed to properly utilise. “We cannot talk of development if we do not develop rural areas,” he said. “In Chimanimani, we have taken advantage of the cyclone Idai relief efforts to bolster development. We are going to use Chimanimani as a model. We have conceptualised what we have termed ‘rural re-organisation’.
“It is a concept that came up as we were having an aerial assessment of the damage after the cyclone. I realised that we are sitting on a lot of land but we poorly planned the land and we are poorly utilising it.”
Government recently approved the construction of 500 homes for the victims of the cyclone by Econet under the Reboot Fund.
Land has since been availed at The Flats and West End farms near Nhedziwa growth point.
Mr Seenza said a team from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was currently assessing the area.
“We changed the original concept for that area because we realised that the model where one person has a big piece of land for houses, cattle pens as well as farming land was not sustainable and made it difficult to develop irrigation facilities properly,” he said.
“Everyone should have their farming land in one area and the houses in another, in an urban set-up, so that they can go to the fields and come back. That way, there is a lot of land left over because land is utilised properly.”
Mr Seenza said there was need to reconstruct the settlements at Arda Transau where hundreds of families were resettled to pave way for diamond mining in Chiadzwa.
He said all plans would not be rushed to ensure a community by in.
“We will not rush because moving people is not easy,” said Mr Seenza. “After we implement the concept in Chimanimani, we will invite local leadership and chiefs so that they can convince their people if they like the model to ensure that we have community buy in. This will free up more land and help to resolve the issue of illegal settlers we have.”
Mr Seenza said the model would also enable people to embark on sustainable projects that will improve their quality of life.
He said the province had since prepared a concept paper, which the Minister of State for Manicaland Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba, would present to higher offices for approval.
Online Reporter