Story by John Nhandara
A pilot programme for the rehabilitation of the Murowodzi riverbed is underway in Mazowe, Mashonaland Central Province, a prototype project aimed at restoring rivers that have been damaged by illegal mining and streambank cultivation.
Government officials, including permanent secretaries from various ministries and secretaries for provincial affairs and devolution, this Wednesday toured the river rehabilitation project.
The Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Engineer Amos Marawa, who is also the chairperson of the working party to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Rehabilitation of Degraded Rivers, said the government intends to rehabilitate all degraded rivers across the country.
“Government is desirous to rehabilitate all degraded rivers in all provinces. We are therefore identifying sites and quantifying the scope of work required. The level of degradation differs from place to place. As a result, we developed a plan and work has so far been completed on about three kilometres of the most devastated section of the river. We are here to assess the quality of work done by the contractor from a technical standpoint. So we are here to assess the quality of work that has been done by the contractor, the quality of work on the technical side. It is the first of its kind in Zimbabwe and will be adopted by other provinces.”
The contractor of the pilot project, Prevail International, spoke on the scope of the project, which includes desilting and restoration of the water body.
“This site had unstable banks and river floors. We removed silt from the river and installed soil erosion control sheets to allow vegetation to regenerate. We also stabilised degraded riverbanks. We are done in accordance with standards from countries like Australia,” Prevail International Project Manager, Mr Simbarashe Makonese said.
“Once we are done with the project, we will also move to other areas, doing a replica of this project,” Prevail International’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms Tendai Sithole noted.
The Murowodzi River ecosystem has been under threat for a long time due to illegal alluvial mining activities that have caused severe siltation and chemical pollution of the water body.
