BY STEPHEN CHADENGA THE Midlands State University Tugwi-Mukosi Multidisciplinary Research Institute (MSU-ToMRI) last week met senior government officials in Masvingo in a bid to set up a research and learning centre at the dam site.
“We are ready to begin construction at the dam site as soon as they get land,” the university said in a statement yesterday.
In 2020, MSU signed a memorandum of understanding with Aquaculture Zimbabwe, Chivi Rural District Council and Gweru-based non-governmental organisation Jointed Hands Welfare Organisation to enhance research at Tugwi-Mukosi Dam.
The research would, among other things, investigate the displacement of families near the dam following floods that occurred in 2014.
In 2014, close to 3 500 families were evacuated to transit camps in Chingwizi, Chisase and Masangula after heavy rains and a partial collapse of the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam wall resulted in flooding and displacement of the people.
MSU sub-themes to be interrogated in the research project include displacements and law, social implications and conflict, impact on agriculture and livelihoods, opportunity for poverty reduction alternative methods of financing dam linked projects in Masvingo, disease, ecology and indigenous knowledge, among other topics.
MSU said the research centre would benefit the country as the higher learning institution would engage in value addition and beneficiation of agricultural products.
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