By Busani Bafana
IRISVALE, Zimbabwe -- 'Forward with development'
are the lyrics of spirited song the group of women at the dam building sing as
they work along.
Trowel in hand, Sihle Sibanda, scoops cements and
secures another large stone to raise the spill way of the Matope Dam. Sibanda
and other members of the Irisvale Irrigation Scheme grow vegetables and crops
using water from the Matope Dam but stop farming half of the year when the dam
dries up, forcing them to abandon farming activities.
The situation is changing. The women - who make up
the large number of the scheme's members-, are busy building. A local NGO, ProAfrica came
to their rescue under a multi-partner initiative. Villagers contributed passion
and labour while Pro-Africa provided training and technical advice. Rotary
International, through a Bulawayo and US-based club helped secure $51 000 to
enhance the capacity of the aged Matope Dam.
Sibanda - the Secretary of the Irisvale Irrigation
Scheme - is like an army commander leading the charge against the enemy. In the
Irisvale resettlement area in the Umzingwane District, 70 km south east of Zimbabwe's second
city of Bulawayo, hunger and poverty have been an undefeated enemy
each time there is a drought.
For the quarter of each year, Sibanda is forced to
borrow either cash or crops from neighbours because there will be nothing in
her garden to sell when she cannot water it.
"Water limitation have affected us from
accessing markets for our produce but that is set to change because we are
determined to succeed," says Sibanda.
Sibanda from Village 8 in the Irisvale resettlement
area is used to the drought but not what it brings - food
shortages, livestock deaths and poverty.
The 3.6 hectare Matope Irrigation scheme developed
in 2006 - a drought year - supports the livelihoods of its 21 members, a
majority of whom are women. The scheme draws water from the Matope River dam
built in 1950 serving Irisvale village which has 76 homesteads with an average
of 10 people in each. The dam also waters the villagers' livestock including a
dairy herd of 20 but dries up every year because cannot hold more water and
farmers could not afford to increase its capacity.
But the dam - comprising a 7m high and 450m long
earth embankment - dries up every year. It cannot hold more water because it is
silted and has a small catchment area.
A
solution was to increase the capacity of the dam but villagers did not have the
money to undertake this task.
A
local NGO, ProAfrica came to their rescue under a multi-partner initiative.
Villagers contributed passion and labour while Pro-Africa provided training and
technical advice. Rotary International, through a Bulawayo and US-based club
helped secure $51 000 to enhance the capacity of the Matope Dam.
Sandy
Whitehead, Chairperson of the Foundation Committee of the Rotary Club of
Bulawayo South, says the project's potential to change lives through water and
sanitation and economic empowerment, resonated with Rotary International focus
on sustainable grants.
"We
have been impressed by the commitment of the community to the project and
eagerness to work," says Whitehead, adding, "Charitable giving and
involvement is important because it empowers the local community to help
themselves not just a hand out but assistance they want and which to use to
make difference in their lives and the Irisvale community are doing just
that."
Villagers
have worked since May 2014 clearing the brush to extend the capacity of the
dam. They have broken sweat raising the spillway by 40 cm.
"When the dam dries, we are forced to stop
farming vegetables and maize and wait for the rains but now we can produce
crops and vegetables throughout the year. This will benefit our family in terms
of food and income," says Gladys Mpofu, treasurer of the Matope Irrigation
Scheme.
Pro-Africa
is a member of the Give-A-Dam national project launched in 1992 to build dams
in Matabeleland South as a pathway out of poverty. The organisation has
promoted irrigation schemes in every dam built and trained farmers on
maintenance and entrepreneurship.
"The
Matope project is a success story because the farmers believed in developing
themselves and worked for no payment in securing a solution to food insecurity
and poverty," says Velenjani Nkomo, the director of Pro-Africa. "On
average farmers earn about $500 a year each from the project but with the
increased capacity of the dam their income will double."
A
Bulawayo hotel, impressed with the Irrigation scheme's produce, has awarded the
scheme a contract to supply fresh vegetables.
Mbulelo
Mtupha, a assistant agriculture officer with Pro-Africa, says the farmers have
been trained on environment conservation and best farming methods which ensures
they can deliver produce of the right quantity and quality on time.
"We
have helped the farmers scheme to take farming as an enterprise because
business skills arm them to succeed," says Mtupha.
Siphephisile
Ndlovu, Chairperson of the irrigation scheme says the project has empowered the
community by helping them provide food and income security.
"More
importantly the project has helped us support widows and more than 15 orphans
in our village, by giving them food and assisting with school fees and other
needs through proceeds from the irrigation scheme," Ndlovu says.
In
the last 14 years, Pro Africa has invested in excess of a million dollars
building more than 40 gravity-fed irrigation schemes around dams. Most of the
schemes have water throughout the year.
Piet te Velde, an engineer with Watermark Consultancy which
worked on the design of the project extension, said raised spillway will give
the dam a new storage capacity of 169 000 cubic metres of water, enabling the
irrigation scheme to operate round the year.
Farmers will earn about
$3,000 per hectare per year, income that income can potentially double by
increasing the area under irrigation by 2 hectares. Based on this, the
investment in the project will be recovered in terms of increased production
and returns in seven and a half years.
Ends/
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