George Maponga in Chivi
Tokwe-Mukosi Dam has so far collected nearly one billion cubic metres of water, enough to irrigate over 17 000 hectares, amid calls for Government to speedily set up irrigation schemes in southern Masvingo. The dam was completed in December last year, making it Zimbabwe’s largest inland reservoir.
Inroads have been made to ensure its water helps the nation to achieve food self-sufficiency through irrigation.
Preliminary projections were that Tokwe-Mukosi was going to take at least three-and-a-half years to fill up, but recent floods in Masvingo have seen the dam level rising from about 21 percent at the beginning of last month to 50,6 percent.
Zinwa’s Engineer Paul Dengu told The Herald at the dam on Thursday that Tokwe-Mukosi had collected enough water to start irrigation.
“Everyday the dam is collecting between five to six million cubic metres of water and currently, we are about 50,6 percent full, which is 965 million cubic metres of water that has been collected in two-and-a-half months after the dam’s completion,’’ he said.
“The water in the dam is enough to irrigate 17 000 hectares and we expect that in a few days’ time, its capacity will have surpassed the one billion cubic-metre peg.’’
Eng Dengu said monitoring tests conducted so far have shown that the dam was safe.