BY SILAS NKALA
DINDE villagers in Hwange are lobbying for a dam amid increased livestock mortality in the area due to water shortages.
Villagers said the available dams were mainly reserved for irrigation, and villagers and their livestock have no access to them.
Dinde villager Cosmas Ndlovu said the area in question fell under Mbulwe-Kashompwe catchment and their proposed dam site is along Mbulwe River.
“We hope that once it is constructed it will serve areas of a radius of between 15 and 20 kilometres. We have initiated the process of the dam construction, but we lack the resources.
“We have organised a committee and drafted a constitution to guide our project. For some time we had donors coming and going without significant progress made. We need excavators and in future we will need fencing,” Ndlovu said.
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The area has boreholes which provide water for domestic use, water for livestock has been a serious challenge forcing villagers to dig the riverbed to get water for livestock during the dry season.
“As we speak, there is no water for the animals and Hwange Rural District Council (RDC) has always told us that it has no money to construct a dam for us. Every year they tell us they have no budget, yet every year they ask us what we want and we tell them,” Ndlovu said.
Hwange RDC chief executive Phindile Ncube and Hwange district development co-ordinator Simon Muleya were not picking calls.
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