Josaya Hungwe
…Hungwe waits for deputy minister
Upenyu Chaota
The Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Josaya Hungwe has told TellZim News he was waiting for Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Davis Marapira so that he could engage him on the contentious dam he built across Mucheke River.
Marapira was said to be outside the country on government business and this comes as calls for him to demolish his wall grow louder.
Hungwe said he was aware of the public concerns regarding the matter and will sit down with Marapira once he is back from his foreign trip.
“I have heard the concerns and I am going to raise the issue with Marapira once he is back from his foreign trip. I could have engaged him when I first heard about what he did but he has been out of the country for some time. I am waiting for him to come back so that I can hear his side of the story,” said Hungwe.
Marapira himself says there is nothing amiss with the wall although indications are that he did not follow laid down procedures when he erected it and is not paying for the water he is impounding.
Concerns are also that the materials he used to build the dam wall, farm bricks and mortar, are of poor quality and are likely to get washed away any time, leading to disastrous floods in the vicinity and other places downstream.
Mucheke River, choking with hyacinth and different forms of pollutants, requires an uninterrupted flow of water to keep it a bit clean.
The water in the river also flows down to Lake Mutirikwi, City of Masvingo’s only source of water.local
