Fears of a deadly flood engulfed the entire Chigoronga Community in Gokwe after the warning shots from the first rains.
The community is mobilising for the dam construction aid to complete the Construction of the Chigoronga Dam commonly known as the Mkoka Dam.
They are looking for aid in form of; cement, money and transport for the Construction of a spillway. So they want to carry stone boulders for use and these stones are found some 15 km away at Manyuli. Hence, they need aid in form of transport.
The dam’s construction started during the lockdown, in April and the work is still underway. Men and women met every Monday and Thursday for the construction but since they used manual work, they failed to meet the target.
Work was divided by gender: men digging and women carrying the clay to the dam wall while volunteers brought the scotch carts and wheelbarrows.
“So far we got a Tractor aid for the whole week from our village Head Velapi. We also got a lorry for a single day from Mapfumo Construction. We used them to remove clay in the dam t the wall of the dame,” said one villager.
However, so far they are done with the dam walls. The dam have two walls. The biggest wall is too old and dates back to the 1990s and it is the original.
“The dam wall to the east was constructed in the 1990s. However, since our spillway was not reinforced with cement and stone boulders it developed into a galley, that massive river you are seeing in the north,” said a man who identified as Mbano.
So from the 1990s due to the climatic changes, some water bodies are drying up and they have decided to reclaim their dam.
“What we did was just renovating the big wall to the east. After that we started a new wall to the north trying to close that galley and open a new spillway. Our biggest challenge is that some people are no longer cooperating. With lockdown released some people now are back to their normal culture of spending the whole day wondering at a business centre. So if we can get aid it can be easy,” said one villager on the grounds of anonymity.
Their only confidence was the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) since they believe it is the main beneficiary. They also thought the local businessman who is also their MP was going to give aid since he is the main beneficiary as he occasionally use this water for his annual garden. Cottco was ready to give this aid but the manager wants their Councillor’s signature before releasing the tractor that is the requirement by the management without which he is not able.
“We were let down by politics. The whole Chiutsi polling station voted MDC. So our councillor and MP are not happy with us since they are ZANU PF. Our Dam Construction Chair, Mr T Nanjari made several visit to the Councillor requesting for a stamp so that the Cottco manager will release a tractor but she is always giving empty promises. Our MP referred us to the Councillor claiming that he oversees a constituency not a small community. So it’s clear the two are on revenge and playing politics with the stamp and service,” said a fuming elderly who refused with his identity.
They are afraid that if they fail to get this aid the whole new wall will be eroded leading to deadly floods down the stream as happened in the 1990s when it was first eroded developing into a galley.
They claim that for the first time the whole bridge was covered under a pile of water, people’s scotch carts and other property swept down the Sengwa river which is some 13km away.
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