The Sunday Mail
Martin Kadzere
The commissioning of Tugwi-Mukosi Dam in 2017 — Zimbabwe’s largest inland dam in terms of holding capacity was celebrated amid optimism it would spur economic activity not only in Masvingo province, but the whole country as well.
First proposed about five decades ago, the dam took nearly three decades to complete after works began in 1992 largely due to funding constraints. It is now three years after the dam was commissioned but there is still little economic activity around the giant structure, apart from small fishery projects. Some analysts estimate that economic activity in and around the dam could potentially generate more than US$2 billion in annual revenues.
“The challenge is the masterplan,” Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chadzamira told The Sunday Mail Business.
“It is taking too long.”
Government, he said, has since roped in tertiary institutions to assist in developing the masterplan. The University of Zimbabwe, Great Zimbabwe University, Midlands State University (MSU) and National University of Science and Technology are all involved in the project.
The MSU has already established Tugwi-Mukosi Multi-Disciplinary Research Institute with a bias towards studies around aquaculture and agriculture. The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works is co-ordinating the whole effort. Attempts to get a comment from Local Government Minister July Moyo were not successful. Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe, which helped to raise funding for the construction of the dam, was tasked to undertake a feasibility study on irrigation, but foreign currency shortages to pay the consultant has been a major drawback. The feasibility study would determine the soil types, existing infrastructure that can be developed for water provision, climate change, other types of crops that can be grown in the area, potential local and international off-takers of produce, as well as the storage and value addition facilities.
Naturally, major spin-offs from the dam are expected from irrigation projects. With a capacity to hold more than 1,8 billion cubic metres of water, the dam has the capacity to irrigate up to 25 000 hectares, of mainly sugarcane.
Last week, IDBZ managed to secure some foreign currency and is hoping to settle part of the outstanding payment to the consultant.
“The IDBZ has made efforts to secure foreign currency from the inter-bank market, but nothing materialised until this Tuesday’s auction when we managed to secure US$ 103 000.
“Previously, despite numerous requests made through our commercial bankers, no allocation was made available. Treasury has made available necessary money to clear the outstanding invoices amounting to US$160 051 during next week’s auction.
“We hope to clear some invoices if we get more forex so that we don’t fall into arrears again,” IDBZ chief executive officer Thomas Sakala told this publication.
According to Zimbabwe Sugar Association (ZSA), the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam provides the sugar industry with new water resources to increase land under irrigated sugarcane by between 17 000 ha to 25 000 ha, thus creating at least 12 000 new jobs and effectively increasing wealth creation for upstream and downstream small to medium enterprises, among others.
This would increase sugarcane production by a further 1,7 to 2,5 million tonnes for processing into sugar for export, ethanol for fuel blending or industrial applications, molasses and fibre (bagasse) for stockfeed production and electricity generation.
“It is a terrible indictment against all of us as Zimbabweans that the much-vaunted Tugwi-Mukosi Dam was commissioned in 2017 amid a lot of pomp and ceremony and yet, save for a fledgling fishing project, precious little has been done in terms of exploiting the vast water resources,” ZSA chairperson Mr Much Masunda said recently.
“It simply boggles the mind as to why we are still waiting for some meaningful economic activity to get off the ground in and around Tugwi-Mukosi Dam which, by the way, was on the drawing board over 50 years ago.”
Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe has been abstracting around 5 percent of the water from the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam to irrigate its downstream sugarcane estates in Triangle and Hippo Valley in Chiredzi.
Economic value will also be realised from the mini hydro project, which has the capacity to generate 15 megawatts (MW).
Both existing and new irrigation schemes, hospitality and recreational facilities, a game park, fisheries and crocodile farms are expected to be developed.
Some of the overlapping benefits include the upgrading of the Buffalo Range Airport, as well as improvement in the livelihoods of the local communities through creation of new jobs. There would also be a broader participation of the locals in sugarcane farming.
