Online Reporter
George Maponga
Masvingo Bureau
THE Government is pressing ahead with plans to construct the US$600 million Runde-Tende Dam in southern Masvingo, with the project expected to boost irrigation in the Lowveld.
The dam’s size will be capped at 1,6 billion cubic metres to prevent flooding of the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway.
The dam is upstream of Lundi Bridge, where the highway crosses Runde River at a point slightly above 100km from Masvingo city.
Set to be built at the confluence of Runde and Tende rivers in Chivi, the dam will be larger than Lake Mutirikwi, located just outside Masvingo city, which has a capacity of about 1,4 billion cubic metres.
But Runde-Tende Dam will be smaller than Tugwi-Mukosi Dam, Zimbabwe’s largest inland reservoir with a capacity of 1,8 billion cubic metres. A few kilometres separate the two water bodies in southern Chivi.
In an interview recently, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka said the Government was continuing engagements with local and South African investors who had expressed interest in financing the mega project.
“The Runde-Tende Dam will supply additional water for irrigation in the Lowveld and sugarcane is one of the crops that will be irrigated by the dam’s water,” Dr Masuka said.
“However, the dam’s size will have to be capped at about 1,6 billion cubic metres so that we protect our highway.”
The project is expected to provide a major boost to the planned Lowveld Integrated Irrigation Development Master Plan, which envisages an irrigated green corridor covering nearly 200 000 hectares from Mwenezi in the west to Chiredzi in the east.
