Farmers at the Tshiombo Irrigation Scheme in the Mutale area have taken it upon themselves to repair the ageing infrastructure.
The scheme that covers an area of nearly 1 000 hectares over a few villages, was started by the government as a poverty-alleviation and job-creation project used to produce enough food for families and also to sell to the whole country.
Of late the scheme has not been doing well at all and some of the farmers have been driven out of business because there is no more support from the government and no water for the irrigation of their produce.
Faced with this dilemma, farmers pooled their resources together for the repair of the main water canal that supplies water to the area. Armed with cement, sand, concrete and an assortment of tools, last Wednesday hundreds of farmers took it upon themselves in the spirit of Vuk Uzenzele to repair the water canal.
The spokesperson for the central committee of the irrigation scheme, Mr Thivhahangwi Nengwenani, said they had suffered for such a long time without water that it had forced many of their members to opt out of business. "The community depends on farming for our livelihood. This scheme created a lot of employment opportunities for the local communities, but those jobs have been lost because of no water." He added that there used to be people employed by the government who looked after the canal, the fence and the roads in the scheme, but this was stopped some years ago.
He further indicated that they felt they could not wait any longer for help but had to stand up and do something to improve their businesses and their lives.
According to him, they contributed money each and got support from some of the local businesspeople for the project. "There are things that we can do ourselves, and we felt we should start somewhere and perhaps the government would meet us halfway. This is a short-term intervention to revive our businesses and maybe the government would see this initiative and lend us a helping hand," added Nengwenani.
Farmer Michael Neluonde said the project had the full support of the community. "We have lost a lot here because of no water. Some of us have been forced out because we could no longer produce anything."
He added that it was new beginning for all, "a fresh start and we are hoping for a brighter future."