At least US$1 million is required to urgently procure new equipment to replace the obsolete outlet system at Manjirenji Dam, which is now struggling to supply adequate irrigation water to sugar cane estates at Mkwasine and Nandi in the Lowveld.

Reduced water supply at the two estates has sent shivers across hundreds of commercial sugar cane farmers whose crop has been left worse off in the face of a dip in supplies.

Cane fields straddling over 14 000 hectares are in danger of wilting due to depressed supplies of water from Manjirenji Dam upstream in Zaka District.

Manjirenji is the sole supplier of water for irrigation at Nandi and Mkwasine cane lands and the future is bleak as only 50 percent of supplies is getting to farmers.

ZINWA engineers recently fixed a leaking outlet pipe, restoring supplies that had stopped for over a week, but water challenges still persist. The situation has been escalated by prevailing day time temperatures that are hitting hard newly planted cane commonly known as “plant cane”.

Farmers fear the current 4 200 litres per second of water being conveyed by canals from Manjirenji to their fields will leave them worse off as the water falls short of the 7 200 litres per second full capacity of the canals.

According to impeccable ZINWA sources, at least two 1100mm pipes are required to overhaul the antiquated outlet works that was installed when the dam was commissioned in 1966.

Manjirenji (formerly Lake Macdougall) is along Chiredzi River and also impound water from Siya Dam in Bikita before conveying it to Mkwasine and Nandi estates.

While farmers worry their crop will waste away if no urgent remedial action is taken, Minister of State in the Office of the President and Cabinet in charge of Special Agricultural Programmes Davies Marapira yesterday disclosed that Government had engaged ZINWA and sugar maker Tongaat Huletts Zimbabwe to urgently resolve the problem.

Minister Marapira said the two organisations should urgently join hands to address the problem and rescue cane farmers from a precipice.

“We have engaged ZINWA and Tongaat so that they join hands to correct the problem of water outflow from Manjirenji to cane fields in the Lowveld and that problem must be addressed now before the situation spirals out of control,” said Minister Marapira.

“At the moment only 50 percent of irrigation water that is required daily is getting to the fields and this means only those plantations nearest to the canals will get the commodity while those far off will get nothing. Farmers will lose their investment unless action is urgently taken.”

He said the irrigation water problems at Mkwasine and Nandi required a complete overhaul of the outlet works at Manjirenji Dam.

“The outlet works at Manjirenji was commissioned about 56 years ago and it’s now old and needs to replaced as a matter of urgency and that is what Government is currently facilitating. That infrastructure has not been repaired since the dam was built and that must be corrected.”

The Minister said Government would continue to upgrade infrastructure to stimulate economic growth in line with Vision 2030.

Mkwasine and Nandi together with Hippo Valley, Triangle, Mwenezana and Mpapa estates supply cane to Zimbabwe’s only two sugar mills in Chiredzi and Triangle.

Reduced cane output from Mkwasine and Nandi will impinge on aggregate national sugar output.

Currently Zimbabwe produces around 450 000 tonnes of sucrose annually with 300 000 tonnes satiating local needs while the rest is exported.