by Leonissah Munjoma

The Zambezi River Authority (ZARA) is committing almost US$10,000 a month towards the setting up of irrigation schemes in the Zambezi valley as part of the Authority's contribution to the development of the area.

The Authority is set to provide pumps, building materials and electric fencing to enable the schemes to draw water from the Zambezi River and Lake Kariba for crop and livestock production.

Among other benefits, the projects will increase the communities' resilience to climate- induced food shortages which have become common in recent seasons.

Work has already started on some of the seven irrigation schemes in Zambia and Zimbabwe with the first two to be handed over before the end of the year 2007.

To ensure sustainability, the Authority will employ a project coordinator who will oversee the operations of the irrigation schemes and capacity building.

“The project coordinator will be dedicated to the irrigation schemes and will train the members and monitor them to ensure sustainability.”

“The coordinator will also play the role of facilitating linkages and learning from each other among the schemes. This person will also assist the members with marketing their produce,” said Mike Tumbare, ZARA Chief Executive.

In 1997 ZARA facilitated the establishment of the Zambezi Valley Development Fund (ZVDF) with the aim of giving back to communities on the banks of the Zambezi River in Zambia and Zimbabwe who were displaced by the construction of Kariba Dam in the late 1950s.

The dam, from which Zambia and Zimbabwe derive major economic benefits such as electricity supplies, tourism inflows and fisheries, displaced 57,000 people when it was built between 1955 and 1959.

Many of those who were displaced still do not have access to electricity or running water up to today. They are also unable to produce enough food as they were resettled on less fertile soils.

The affected districts are Kalomo, Gwembe, Sinazongwe and Siavonga in Zambia and Binga, Hurungwe and Nyaminyami in Zimbabwe.

These districts are set to benefit from small-scale irrigation schemes which are at various stages of development.

These irrigation schemes will reduce the communities' dependence on rain-fed agriculture which in recent seasons has become less productive due to unreliable rains and increased climate variability.

The irrigation schemes include Lusitu in Siavonga, Nkandabwe in Sinazongwe, and Nkolongozya in Gwembe, all in Zambia, while in Zimbabwe there is Gatche Gatche in Nyaminyami, Mlimbizi in Binga and Chitenge in Hurungwe.

Meanwhile ZARA has built a US$15,200 basic school at Kasaya in Kazungula district in Zambia as part of a strategy to address the effects of floods.

Following the 2006 floods that left hundreds of villagers homeless in the area, ZARA carried out an assessment and concluded that the villages were built on low ground. The school has been built on high ground in an area selected by the beneficiaries.

“This is intended to encourage people to move to higher ground. The hope it that people will move nearer the school so that children will not have a long distance to travel. That way, they will also be moving away from the flood areas,” Tumbare said. 

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