Addressing journalists at a cocktail organized by Tongaat
Hulett Zimbabwe (THZ) at Triangle Country Club recently, Chiwa said there were
many dams in the Lowveld but communities were starving because there was no
serious government support.
“We have drought but our dams are full. Our dams are full
yet we have communities around starving. What is the challenge? We have
sugarcane as a strategic crop but it remains a political statement. This is
where the country should be looking at this time; the land is there and the
dams are full but we don’t have serious government support.
“Even when we look at the budget itself you can’t be
budgeting for tobacco when drought is threatening and when we know most of it
will not be irrigated. This is the time that we should be actually budgeting
towards an area where water security is certain like this particular area. I
know I will be on front page tomorrow but I have to say it,” said Chiwa.
He said Chiredzi had the capacity to feed all the starving
communities if it was getting serious government support.
“We are facing a drought situation as a nation, but because
of the challenges that we have down here; it is the time that maybe we were
going to be the Biblical Egypt where the reserve of the nation could be found
because of the water security that we have,” he said.
Chiwa said their expectation as an industry was that since
government had taken a stance to declare sugarcane a strategic crop, they
expected further interventions to be pronounced in terms of policy so that once
it becomes a strategic crop, it is treated the same like other strategic crops.
When asked by TellZim at a side interview about how he
wanted government to assist considering that THZ is a private company which
makes it difficult to be included in the national budget, Chiwa said the
situation was now different because there were more out grower sugarcane
farmers in the Lowveld.
“It is possible to be part of the national budget because
we now have more individual sugarcane farmers – so it’s no longer Tongaat
alone. These farmers need support the same way tobacco farmers are being
supported,” said Chiwa.
Masvingo province has the largest inland dams in the
country but there are few irrigation schemes and most of the water is not
utilized.
Tugwi – Mukosi dam was completed about five years ago but
has been lying idle despite that it has a potential to irrigate over 20 000
hectares. It’s pathetic that people around the dam are starving yet the
situation could have been different if government had established irrigation
schemes at Tokwe Mukosi dam.
Currently the water from Tokwe Mukosi dam is only being
used by THZ, and the company indicated that the dam had enough water for
irrigation at least for the next five years.
Other water bodies like Muzhwi, Bangala, Manjirenji and
Mutirikwi are lying idle with the water only being used for domestic purposes.TellZimNews
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