Harare (New Ziana)- Water levels in the country’s major dams have remained largely static owing to the current prolonged dry spell, high temperatures and the resultant decline in inflows, the country’s national water authority has said.
Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) corporate communications and marketing manager, Marjorie Munyonga said as at March 14, 2022, the national dam level average stood at 90.2 percent.
But she said the average dam water levels were higher this year than what would be expected at this time of the year.
“The national dam level average, however, remains higher than the 71,8 percent expected during this period of the year. While the outlook appears favourable at a national scale, there are major dams which are still below 50 percent and will not be able to support the necessary socio-economic activities in the absence of further inflows.
“These include Mzingwane (8. 4 percent), Mazowe Dam (42, 5 percent ),Tshongokwe (34, 6 percent) and Clifton Dam (30, 95 percent ),” said Munyonga.
She said 53, 2 percent of rural and urban centres are raw water secure with their water supply dams holding water sufficient for the next 21 months, while 44, 7 percent of the rural and urban centres have their water supply dams holding water sufficient for a period of 12 and 20.9 months.
She said those rural and urban centres with dams holding less than 12 months of supplies constitute 4. 3 percent.
“In view of this outlook, all irrigating farmers and other raw water users who intend to draw water from ZINWA-managed dams are advised to start lodging their applications with their respective service centres and catchments for water reservations ahead of the commencement of the winter cropping season.
“These applications will lead to the signing of water abstraction agreements between ZINWA and the water users and help ZINWA to efficiently plan and allocate the limited water resources available,” she said.
New Ziana
