Matabeleland South in bid to conserve water

MATABELELAND South Province has put in place strict water conservation measures to avoid a potential water supply deficit to some areas.

Presenting a report during a Matabeleland South provincial drought relief meeting in Gwanda yesterday, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) operations engineer for raw water under Umzingwane catchment area, Mr Artwell Machaya, said the province has 21 major dams and seven of them were below 50 percent capacity while 14 were between 50 and 88 percent capacity.

Mr Machaya said major dams have a total of about 409 606 mega litres of water against a storage potential of 716 000 mega litres.

He said strict conservation measures had been put in place to ensure that the water supply lasts the province until the next rainy season.

“The catchment currently has seven major dams below 50 percent capacity and 14 others between 50 and 88 percent capacity and we are past the rainfall season thus posing a potential supply deficit to some areas and sectors. 

“We are simply saying we have started the year with a deficit hence strict water conservation measures have to be put in place,” said Mr Machaya.

“It can therefore be concluded that currently there is no provincial dam that is full and there are greater chances that we might end the season with most dams failing to reach full supply capacity.” 

He said as a result of low water levels, irrigation schemes in the province have been forced to scale down their operations while some have phased out their winter cropping for the year.

Mr Machaya said in a bid to improve water supply, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement last year introduced a programme of constructing water weirs and water harvesting. 

He said in Matabeleland South province, 44 possible sites for the weirs had been identified. He said work on six sites had started but had not yet been completed due to resource constraints.

Mr Machaya said they had completed water harvesting projects on 10 sites in the province. 

He also said an assessment of water supply centres responsible for processing clean water across the province was completed and US$412 000 was required to ensure they were fully operational. 

“Water abstraction and usage volumes are increasing across the province. An assessment of water supply centres in the province was completed and a total of 11 urban and rural water centres need attention. A total of US$412 000 is required to ensure they are fully operational,” Mr Machaya said. — @DubeMatutu