BY KENNETH NYANGANI
VILLAGERS in the diamond-rich Chiadzwa area have embarked on fishery and irrigation projects to sustain their families after realising that diamonds revenue was eluding them.
NewsDay this week toured the projects in Mukwada village where over 250 families are participating in the projects.
The villagers are keeping tilapia fish and growing beans among other crops on a five-hectare piece of land under irrigation.
Bocha Diamond Community Development Trust (BDCDT) chairperson Lovemore Mukwada said the reason why they embarked on fisheries and farming was that they noticed that they could not only be dependent on diamond mining companies.
“This fishing project can go a long way in alleviating poverty in Marange, we have almost 250 families who are benefiting from the projects and as villagers we had realised that the dependency syndrome was creeping into our people,” he said.
‘’We have more than 70 000 fish, tilapia type in our dams and the community is happy with the initiative. As you are aware, some of us lost our land to diamond mining companies, but we are doing something to move on as a community.”
He, however, applauded the Zimbabwe Consolidation Diamond Company (ZCDC) for assisting them to till their land. ‘’We are grateful ZCDC cleared our land and did the tilling and we are now in a better place. We cannot continue to moan and groan over what happened to us as a people,’’ Mukwada said.
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He said their appeal was for the diamond firms to assist them to find markets for their produce.
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