Hungwe wants clarity on dam master plan

Government has been challenged to expedite the crafting of the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam master plan to pave way for large-scale irrigation development and other investments to breathe life into Masvingo’s economy.

Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Senator Josaya Hungwe yesterday said the provincial leadership was concerned by the apparent dithering over production of a master plan to allow full utilisation of Tugwi-Mukosi.

The dam, which is now Zimbabwe’s largest inland water body with a capacity of 1,8 billion cubic metres, was commissioned in May last year, amid high expectations that it would precipitate widespread socio-economic transformation in the arid province owing to its vast irrigation potential.

Senator Hungwe said the apparent lack of progress to fully exploit the dam was worrying, adding that Government needed to seriously deal with the matter to enable Masvingo’s economy to take-off.

He said there was a veil of secrecy over progress in drafting the dam’s master plan that would determine the land use pattern around the reservoir and also areas to be turned into a greenbelt.

“We have been calling upon those responsible for drafting the master plan to come clear and tell us the progress, but we have been reaching a dead end because we are told the plan is there, but my question is, where exactly is the master plan because we do not have it,” he said.

“Tugwi-Mukosi should be immediately put to use for the benefit of our people who have high expectations over the dam, but there is nothing moving. Our people want to grow crops under irrigation, we need to start engaging investors as a province to come and put their money, but we are told you cannot do anything minus the master plan so what is holding the plan up to now?”

Senator Hungwe said the province was even prepared to spearhead the drafting of the master plan if there were challenges in coming up with one by the responsible authority.

“We are ready to look for a consultant who can quickly draft the plan because the dam has been lying idle yet our people are faced with hunger and are counting losses of missed opportunities in tourism and fisheries,” he said.

“We are being inundated with investors everyday who want to open shop at Tugwi-Mukosi, but our hands are tied because there is no master plan, something needs to be urgently done on the issue of this plan.”

Masvingo and Chivi Rural district councils, which share the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam, said they were handicapped in luring investors to the reservoir as they could not draft a local development plan without the master plan.

Government roped in the Infrastructural Development Bank of Zimbabwe to lead feasibility studies before drafting a master plan that will have to be okayed by Cabinet.

The infrastructural bank would also use the master plan to identify investors prepared to start various projects at the dam.

The Masvingo provincial leadership has already started inviting applications from individuals and corporates interested in exploiting opportunities at the dam, which is already supplying water for irrigation for sugar cane plantations at Triangle and Hippo Valley estates in the Lowveld.

Tugwi-Mukosi Dam has potential to irrigate more than 25 000 hectares, transforming parts of Chiredzi, Mwenezi, Chivi and Masvingo districts into an expansive perennial greenbelt.