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Gokwe district is sparsely vegetated, which makes the soil susceptible to erosion by natural causes

Locadia Mavhudzi Midlands Correspondent
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has partnered with World Wide Fund for Nature WWF to embark on soil erosion control in Gokwe-Chireya area under the Hwange–Sanyati Biological Corridor project. EMA Midlands provincial education and publicity officer Mr Simon Musasiwa told The Herald that perennial cyclones in the area left a trail of destruction including land degradation which needed rehabilitation.

“We have established eight soil erosion monitoring plots and eight weather stations at schools in Gokwe North under Chief Chireya. Under the same programme, we have also rehabilitated a huge gully which had earned a name, ‘Chireya Gully’ and had seen most of the parts in that area become inaccessible,” he said. Mr Musasiwa said a catchment area which covers over 500 hectares was characterised by sodic soils and deep gullies, some five metres deep.

“In Chireya Ward, for example, some gullies have eroded headward to a distance of over 612 metres towards the only hospital in the area which serves over 33 000 people. The gullies were also spreading towards the area’s business centre and a school,” he said. Mr Musasiwa said they were also planting trees in the area in abid to arrest soil erosion.

“We are conducting other controls through the planting of vetiver grass as well as engaging the community on the importance of soil erosion controls,” he said. The Hwange-Sanyati Biological Corridor Project is aimed at addressing environmental challenges in the north-western parts of the country and is being funded by the UN Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to the tune of $6,4 million over a five-year period from 2015.