. . . Lake Harvest enters the fray
The Herald
From George Maponga recently at TUGWI-MUKOSI DAM
One of the country’s largest fish breeders, Lake Harvest, has started operations at Tugwi-Mukosi, in a development that is expected to make the country’s largest inland dam a major source of fish.
Lake Harvest’s move to Tugwi-Mukosi will further consolidate its position as the biggest fish breeder in Zimbabwe as the firm has even bigger operations at Lake Kariba, which Zimbabwe shares with Zambia.
Speaking at the end of a tour of the dam by the Inter-ministerial task force on Tugwi-Mukosi to assess progress in the rollout of anchor projects such as fisheries, Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Perrance Shiri said the fisheries project would transform lives of communities in the arid Chivi and Masvingo districts.
‘’The fisheries project (at Tugwi-Mukosi Dam) has a capacity to improve the living standards in the surrounding communities and as we witnessed during a tour of the dam, Lake Harvest is already here and has started fish breeding,’’ said Minister Shiri. The Cabinet minister challenged Zimparks to consider locals in the issuance of fishing permits at Tugwi-Mukosi.
Government, through Zimparks, has since started issuing fishing permits, mainly targeting cooperatives from around Chivi and the province at large, a move that has been applauded for boosting nutrition in drought-stricken communities while also boosting household incomes.
An initial 200 000 fingerlings were stocked in the dam by Government two years ago under the Command Fisheries programme after Tugwi-Mukosi was identified as the main anchor of the project that would be replicated in other dams dotted around Masvingo.
However, a spike in poaching activities has been a source of serious concern, with Zimparks moving to permanently station 15 game rangers at the dam in a bid to combat the vice. There have also been calls for Government to procure speed boats for anti-poaching teams to enable them to easily access the entire perimeter of the dam which has 1,8 billion cubic metres of water.