Joseph Madzimure-Senior Reporter

THE construction of the US$5 million Causeway Dam between Mashonaland East and Manicaland provinces has been completed, and the dam is already full to capacity.

This comes as the Second Republic has been vigorously pursuing pragmatic policies to transform people’s lives and achieve President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030, of making Zimbabwe an upper middle income economy by that year.

The dam project is among other Government-funded initiatives that include the long-awaited Kunzvi Dam located north of Harare, Mutange in Gokwe, Gwayi-Shangani in Matabeleland North and Chivhu Dam in Mashonaland East.

Marowanyati Dam in Buhera, Manicaland, was commissioned by President Mnangagwa recently and villagers have already started benefiting from its water for irrigation.

Such initiatives that are taking shape across the country will ensure that Zimbabwe is climate-proofed against droughts and thus eliminating the importation of food in two years, as well as feed the rapid industrialisation that is taking place around the country.

Causeway Dam, which is located 30 kilometres east of Marondera, has a carrying capacity of 75 million cubic litres.

Mashonaland East Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Aplonia Munzverengwi confirmed construction of the dam was complete.

“It was completed end of February this year and is already full to capacity,” she said. “It is already spilling.” The dam is set for commissioning next month. “We now have the dates for commissioning of the dam by President Mnangagwa in May,” said Minister Munzverengwi. Initially, the dam construction was supposed to be completed last year, but was affected by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It will enable irrigation for both resettled A1 farmers and surrounding commercial farmers, with a potential to irrigate a total of 2 250 hectares.

The US$5 million project, which was constructed on Macheke River, is expected to provide water to Marondera town and Marondera University of Agricultural Science and Technology for both domestic and industrial purposes. The areas that are also going to benefit from the dam are Svosve in Mashonaland East and Chiduku in Manicaland.

In addition, resettlement areas in Rusape and Headlands can also use the dam as a source of water although it entails pumping the water over long distances. The dam will provide water to Macheke Irrigation Scheme earmarked for local farmers and villagers who were moved to pave way for its construction a few years back.

Government released $2,7 million to relocate the families that were affected by the dam construction. The move to resettle the affected families near the dam was promoted by the idea that they had to benefit from the water source through irrigation schemes.

Causeway Dam is expected to provide water to Marondera town and Marondera University of Agricultural Science and Technology for both domestic and industrial purposes. Engineers from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, along with their sub-contractors — China Nanchang Engineering and Multiforce contractors — constructed the dam.

Turning to the current status of Chivhu Dam, which is one of the targeted Government project, Minister Munzverengwi said construction was progressing well and the dam was set to be completed early next year.

Since President Mnangagwa came into office in 2017, a number of projects with a huge positive impact on development have been commissioned in various sectors, as the country takes off on its journey to industrialisation and modernisation.