This year marks the first rainy season that Margaret Kalimina will not have to worry about a leaky roof in her thatched hut.
And soon, the use of intensive means of watering crops and waiting for the rains will be a thing of the past for her and many other households in the villages of Hankwa, Malama, Toba and Kalima in Mwomboshi area of Chisamba District.
Kalimina is one of several households relocated by the government, away from the Mwomboshi River to pave way for the construction of a dam and setting up of irrigation schemes.
Supported through the World Bank-funded Irrigation Development and Support Project, this will help small scale farmers increase yields per hectare, and enable year-round crop production.
“We will be given a hectare of irrigated land per household and this will enable us to engage into farming throughout the year without worrying about food shortages,” said Kalimina, who now lives in a three-room home with her mother, two sisters and her daughter in Kalima Village.
The dam is part of an overall irrigation project in the country, which includes two additional irrigation schemes; the Lusitu in the Southern Province, and the Musakashi in the Copperbelt Province. With a wall 1,700 meters long and 23 meters high, the Mwomboshi Dam is expected to bring more than 10,000 hectares of land under irrigation when it is at full capacity, making it the largest in the country’s agriculture sector.
“The people of Mwomboshi will benefit immeasurably from this project as they will not only be able to irrigate their crops and have pasture throughout the year, but will also have access to water for their livestock and fisheries,” said Ina Marlene-Ruthenberg, World Bank country manager for Zambia.
For much of their lives, the people of this area have relied on the Mwomboshi river as a daily source of water for washing, cooking, drinking, as well as small-scale fishing.
Maize farming is the chief source of income in Mwomboshi, where more than 90% of the people who live there are farmers.
Kalimina’s new house stands nearby one of the newly-installed hand pumps that she is sharing with three other households for all their domestics uses.
“The government is also encouraging us to reduce on maize-oriented agriculture and try new food crops such as wheat, butternut and sweet corn,” Kalimina said.”
The project irrigation scheme has been divided into four tiers. The first one will be allocated to small scale farmers, such as Kalimina. The second tier will be specifically for co-operatives, which includes benefits such as access to government-subsidized farming inputs. The third and fourth tiers will be exclusive to commercial and large-scale farming.
When the project becomes operational, 338 households will have been relocated.
BRAVO HARD-WORKING ECL
This is cleared stated that its supported through the World Bank-funded Irrigation Development and Support Project…you think you Lazy Lungu would genuinely support such projects without pocketing the funds.
*…..clearly….
Those houses are better. Why can’t they do the same in Lusaka’s msisi compound instead of the way Lusambo is demolishing with no sympathy.
Wonderful. Great job ECL. Thank you for leaving Malawi and working for us. Geez, I wonder where our own Zambian born me are!
A hectare of irrigated land and a non holey house better than one in Kanyama or Kuku. We make so much money selling chilies from just a few square metres of beds. These communities and many more will be transformed from less than a US$1 per day into middle income earners instantly and no sing song is made about it. Instead Kainde’s negatives dominate & his narcissist when elected, I will………dominates all media.
This Govt has to up its strategic communication. There can’t be so much progress (its actually more than 3 such dams) yet vibes portray the country to be worse than Congo. Very tiny Rwanda has made so much sing song about the minuscule improvements it has made.
And soon, the use of intensive means of watering crops and waiting for the rains will be a thing of the past for her and many other households in the villages of Hankwa, Malama, Toba and Kalima in Mwomboshi area of Chisamba District.
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Is that their new house where they have already messed up the floor by applying that customary red polish!!
Beautiful house and family! The demon of laughter still sees this as “laughable!” Well done GRZ. Keep developing this thing! It will not be president.
I mean all zambians deserve houses like the one for Mrs Kalima , it is the obligation of any decent government to secure good housing units for it’s people despite where ever they live.
It has become normal for people in africa think they should do everything for themselves while governments miss use funds for the citizens everyone need to know that taxpayer’s money and donor funds should should go towards such projects , longevity of life also depends on housing people live long if they live in good decent homes .
People in development countries live longer because many factors including housing.
Good points but to do the same for the Lusaka shanty compounds would a mammoth task in many ways. ..eg resources, human movement and many more. Politics would also be a great hindrance with political parties accusing each other of everything.
The darkest hour is just before dawn. The cow (mines) that used to give us free and plentiful milk is in the hands of mean foreigners.
Wonderful development. That’s what we and every Zambian citizen need.