MASVINGO — The leakage that has affected the Tokwe-Mukorsi Dam wall is set to further delay completion of the multi-million-dollar project, a Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) official has said.
BY TATENDA CHITAGU OWN CORRESPONDENT
The dam was initially scheduled for completion last December before the deadline was moved to April this year.
Tokwe-Mukorsi Dam resident engineer Paul Dengu told Vice-President Joice Mujuru during a tour of the dam on Wednesday that they would need about three months to drain the water to complete the dam wall.
“We are supposed to complete all work by August, but it depends on the draining of the water. In six weeks’ time, we should empty all the water so that we may put the concrete lining on the final wall. This means that we need another two to three months to finish construction of the dam,” Dengu said.
Dengu said the heavy inflows into the dam, which flooded 2 600 hectares of the dam’s flood basin and saw scores of families’ homesteads immersed in water and property destroyed, was not expected and this led to the rock-fill dam wall giving in.
At full supply, the dam will cover an area of approximately 9 600 hectares.
“We did not expect such a heavy inflow this year. We expected the water to flood 600 hectares, but it is covering 2 600 hectares now.
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“The floods caught us when the dam wall was at 67 metres high and went through the rocks. We expected that this year, the water would not exceed 44 metres. In 15 days, the water levels increased by nine metres, and so we started constructing the wall day and night to arrest the inflow,” Dengu said.
Apart from the floods, delays in resettling the displaced villagers due to lack of funds had stalled progress on the construction of the dam, especially in areas where blasting was required, meaning the deadline would not be met.
While some money for resettling villagers in Nuanetsi Ranch in Mwenezi was disbursed, some villagers squandered the money before they had even moved and are still stuck there.
Some of the villagers had earlier resisted eviction saying they wanted to be moved downstream so that they could benefit from the dam through irrigation.
Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti also said some 1 870 villagers had refused to be evacuated demanding evaluation of their properties to enable them to claim compensation.
He said transport shortages had also slowed down the evacuation programme.
