Boost for Matobo villagers

TENDAI BHEBE RECENTLY IN MATOBO 

A non-governmental organisation, Dabane Trust, has developed water abstraction systems in Tshelanyemba in Matobo district, Matabeleland South Province, to boost sustainable food production.

The project, which will benefit more than 1 500 villagers from the area, will also create an integrated conservancy for both wildlife and livestock management as a way of boosting the area’s economic development initiatives.

The process involved extracting water from natural sources such as rivers and groundwater aquifers, for various uses from drinking to irrigation, treatment, and industrial applications.

The area has been battling seasonal droughts resulting in acute water supply problems for both humans and animals.

Consequently, people and animals, were forced to travel long distances in search of water.

“Over the years we have seen that the climate changes. People are cutting down trees. There is no food for livestock because it’s just bare. There are a lot of what we call denuded areas. So this programme came looks at the ecosystems in terms of forestry, “Dabane Trust programmes manager Joyce Dube said.

She added: “As it is, if you ask people in the area they no longer know what a rabbit looks like because of the bare environment.

“It means wild animals that we can hunt for are no longer available. So when we started this programme three years ago it was to resuscitate the environment.”

Agriculture in most areas in the country is predominantly rain-fed and is increasingly adversely affected by the climate change and lack of consistency characterised by erratic rain patterns, prolonged dry spells and floods.

“There are a lot of gullies we only concentrated on the four wards that is ward two, five, six and seven but the concentration it was in 6 villages in ward 6 and 7 and we were working with all the villagers in the homesteads and I think they were about 1507 homesteads that we were working with.”

Ward 7 councillor Sitshengisiwe Ndlovu said the organisation has made a positive impact on their economic growth.

“We used to literally scavenge for water in dry river beds and irrigate our gardens as well as water our animals. The coming in of Dabane Trust in our area to a larger extent changed our lives as production in our gardens increased.

“As a result of this increased production, we now produce adequate food for our families. Beyond the ordinary farming practice, we have been taught new techniques in farming which we know will result not only in higher yields but will ensure that the food they are growing is healthy,” she said.

Dabane Trust works with rural communities to support simple, low cost, sustainable food production systems in these communities by improving land and water management in semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe.