Water Crisis On The Horizon

It seems that the country is headed towards a water crisis, as the current drought continues to wreak havoc on the country’s agricultural development.

According to Zimbabwe’s Minister of Water, Oprah Muchingurihas, the country’s dams are currently only half full and will not be able to last throughout the start of the next rainy season.

Muchingurihas called on people to be extremely vigilant with their water use and to make sure that the work together in order to save as much water as possible:

“…This address is a clarion call for all of us to be highly responsible and adopt measures that will ensure that we go through the drought period together…[sic] use water sparingly when irrigating crops, reduce water leakages in the water networks, plugging all leaks to reduce unaccounted water and to make use of gadgets that save water when bathing” she said.

The minister also called on the government to better manage the water bodies in the country, as she said there are thousands of water bodies that are not being properly utilised:

“…Zimbabwe has more than 10,000 (water bodies) which are not being utilised or are under-utilised…This coupled with the unfortunate state of weather affairs has resulted in a disastrous effect on food security and loss of livestock in the country,” the minister said.

Some of the biggest Zimbabwean dams that are busy drying up include Osborne in Manicaland, which is 33 percent full, Chesa and Mazowe dams in Mashonaland Central which are 33 and 31 percent full, Seke and Kotwa dams in Mashonaland East which are 34 and 14 percent full and finally Chibero and Suri Suri dams in Mashonaland West which are currently sitting at 29 and 35 percent of capacity.