STREAMBANK cultivation (SBC) refers to the practice of growing crops conducted
within a 30-metre radius of a wetland such as a river, dam or lake.
Major drivers of streambank cultivation
Landlessness compels cultivators to seek livelihood from riverine fields. The local
political and traditional leadership indicate that local land pressure, drive desperate
cultivators to marginal lands.
River basins are ideal for crops and vegetables that require high levels of moisture.
The erratic rainfall and the perennial droughts that are being influenced by climate
change have led famers to cultivate on river banks.
The high urban population being caused by an increase in rural to urban migration is
also to blame. This has resulted in an increase in urban pressure and so to sustain
the pressure the remaining land has been used as an alternative for farming.
Unemployment and economic challenges have driven communities to practices SBC.
It has given an immediate reprieve from the harsh realities of urban unemployment.
Impacts of streambank cultivation
While the arguments above seem sympathetic to the practice of stream bank
cultivation, this cannot be seen as an excuse for the destruction of river ecosystems.
Fertiliser used in the cultivation on river banks is washed away into the rivers,
resulting in eutrophication, which ends up creating a dense plant and bacteria
colonies that feed from these nutrients including invasive aquatic plants, one of the
culprit plant is the hyacinth weed that has racked havoc in Lake Chivero and some
catchments.
The use of pesticides and herbicides along the river channels results in the
deterioration of the water quality. The ingested chemicals result in processes known
as bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Sometimes people eat the poisoned fish
and the impact can be fatal.Â
Streambank cultivation, leads to siltation of the local dams and rivers which
previously used to supply water to livestock and other domestic purposes.
Communities downstream of affected water bodies risk losing their livelihoods
because they also depend on these rivers for water for farming and for their
livestock.
Stream bank cultivation leads to the destruction of the ecosystem which will
inevitably put the lives of many people in danger, as compared to a handful of the
community benefiting from this illegal form of agriculture. Streambank cultivation
chokes rivers with silt, consequently silting urban dams to the extent that they end
up creating serious water shortages which will result in a serious deficit for water for
hydropower generation, irrigation, water for domestic use and for animals.
What the law says
According to the Environmental Management Act Chapter 20:27 as read with
Statutory Instrument 7 (Environmental Impact Assessment and Ecosystems
Protection Regulations):
(1) No person shall, without a licence issued by the Agency, the proof whereof
shall lie upon him or her, to reclaim or drain, drill or make a tunnel, introduce
any exotic animal or plant species, cultivate, or license the cultivation of, or
destroy any natural vegetation on, or dig up, break up, remove, or alter in
any way the soil or surface of a wetland or land within thirty metres of
naturally defined banks of a public stream or land within thirty metres of the
high flood level of any body of water conserved in artificially constructed
water storage work on a public stream or bed, banks, or course of any river
or stream
Any contravention of this provision will attract a fine not exceeding ZWL50 000 or
both such fine and imprisonment.
