Brighton Chiseva
MASVINGO – Farmers at Mushandike Irrigation Scheme have told the
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Douglas Karoro that illegal settlers who
occupied their grazing lands were a threat to the resuscitation of the scheme.
Karoro visited the scheme on a ‘look
and learn’ tour as government plans to build a canal which will channel water
from Muzhwi Dam in Mashava to complement Mushandike Dam which is failing to
supply enough water.
The scheme’s chairperson Denhere
Bhusvumani said if no action is taken against the illegal settlers then the
plan will not succeed.
“We have our friends who occupied
our grazing lands. We should now be focusing on cattle to survive since we have
no adequate water for crop farming. If you do not remove them, even the canal
plan will be difficult to implement because some of them are settled along its
envisaged route.
“Before they came, we could let
our cattle enjoy free reign on the veld but we can no longer do that now
because of these people. We have to tend our cattle the whole day.
He said they were serious farmers
who required not food handouts but an enabling environment to thrive.
“Give us water and leave us, we
are not used to surviving on food handouts. We only need to be provided with water
and you need to address the issue illegal settlers. That’s all,” said
Bhusvumani.
Karoro assured the famers that
they were looking into the issue of illegal settlers as well as mapping a way
to construct the canal from Muzhwi Dam.
“We will deal with the illegal
settlement. From here we are going to sit and agree on the time frame to start
constructing the canal. All the relevant authorities will get copies so that
each one them gets to play their own role,” said Karoro.
The Minister of State for
Masvingo Provincial Affairs Ezra Chadzamira warned village heads not to sell
land and assured as they were not authorised to do so.
“You must report illegal settlers
in time because if government destroys their homes now, we would be accused of
all sorts of things. We now have to look at how best we can deal with the issue
for the benefit of all,” said Chadzamira
The irrigation scheme, which closed
down in August 2019 due to water shortages, is divided into 11 blocks with more
than 800 farmers.
Indications are that if a canal
from Muzhwi is constructed, it will supply water to an area three times bigger
than the current scheme.
