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Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
Chivi Rural District Council has embarked on an ambitious programme to improve potable water availability through sinking of boreholes and rehabilitation of small dams across the arid district.

Newly-elected council chair Councillor Godfrey Mukungunugwa yesterday said addressing the precarious water situation was top of his new council’s list of priorities.

Cllr Mukungunugwa (ward 6) said Chivi RDC wanted a permanent solution to water woes blighting the arid district that is always at the receiving end of droughts.

“I am going to work with my council to address the perennial water challenges in Chivi through drilling many boreholes and rehabilitating existing once,” he said. “We also want to make sure small dams are constructed across the district to support small gardens and small-scale fisheries projects that boost income and nutrition for local communities.”

Cllr Mukungunugwa said his council was pinning its hopes on the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam, which was expected to revolutionaries irrigation in Chivi.

He said full utilisation of the dam, which bisects Chivi and Masvingo districts, would open vast opportunities in irrigation and fisheries benefiting thousands of villagers.

“We have a few boreholes in our district and we want to liaise with the District Development Fund (DDF) and other service providers so that we have more boreholes throughout all the wards,” said Cllr Mukungunugwa.

“We want a situation where villagers would not travel more than 1,5km to the nearest water point. We also have Tugwi-Mukosi Dam which should be our cash cow in terms of revenue as it has been earmarked for massive investment.

“We would collect revenue from taxis and investment fees from those willing to do business at the dam. We are going to have investments in wildlife conservancy operations, hospitality and tourism.”

The 1,8 billion cubic metre-capacity Tugwi-Mukosi Dam has a potential to irrigate at least 25 000 hectares of land.

A massive fishery project is already in the offing following the stocking of more than 200 000 fingerlings (young fish) in the dam, by the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, last year.

Cllr Mukungunugwa said his council was focusing on building new schools, and clinics over the next half a decade to reduce the distance travelled by learners and patients to access educational and health services.

He cited the plight of the Mhandamabwe community where school children were walking for up to 14km to get to the nearest school.