As part of the three-year Zimbabwe Resilience Programme, Cesvi, a non-governmental organisation, is resuscitating nine irrigation projects. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is funding the programme, which started in 2017, to the tune of $5.3 million.

The CESVI Area Coordinator for Beitbridge, Mr. Munyaradzi Katemaudzanga, said, ‘[T]he nine schemes are River Ranch, Ndambe Phase 2, Jalukange, Bili, Dombolidenje, Shashe, Kwalu, Tongwe and Tshikwalakwala. Civil works are at an advanced stage. So far, we have completed rehabilitating the Dombolidenje Irrigation Scheme where we have a centre pivot that is irrigating 16 hectares and is operating with a solar-powered booster pump’.

Katemaudzanga also noted that two centre pivots, one to irrigate 26 hectares and the other to irrigate 34 hectares, had been installed and a borehole and drip system had been rehabilitated at Ndambe Phase 2. Also installed were electric fences covering over 70 percent of the Jalukange and Bili irrigation projects.

‘The irrigation projects [a]re being modernised to adapt to the effects of climate change. They are installing solar-powered pumps and related equipment in view of energy challenges affecting the country’, Katemaudzanga said. The programme is being implemented through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, and Rural Resettlement.

Source: The Herald

Photo source: World bank Photo Collection