The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
MR JONATHAN Maphenduka calls himself a water enthusiast.
He recalls with fondness his heyday as a journalist at Chronicle back in the day, traversing the length and breath of Zimbabwe chronicling stories related to the water situation in the country.
As a parched Bulawayo looks again to the heavens for more divine intervention at the end of another rainy season that has left its main supply dams thirsty, yawning and almost empty, Mr Maphenduka is quick to remind us that there is nothing new.
We have been here before. He fondly narrates the meandering route taken by the then Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP), a pipe dream once upon-a-time that has now been brought to reality by the Second Republic. Mr Maphenduka is a man who is aware of the power of water, which was perhaps why when the Sunday News crew visited him on World Water Day last week, he was only eager to stomp grass and dust as he led the crew to a dream that for him, had been 14 years in the making.
Just behind Mr Maphenduka’s smallholding farm in Marula, Matabeleland South runs Mananda River, a water force that flows between the picturesque rocks that give the province its characteristic outlook. It is from here that Mr Maphenduka conceived, 14 years ago, to build the Mananda River Weir. After the completion of two walls that allow him to trap water from the river, he now has a body that he can draw consistently and efficiently from. Now, almost a decade-and-a-half later, Mr Maphenduka stands ready to reap the rewards of his long-term vision.
“It’s been a long struggle to get where we are today. I have spent a lot money to get here because this is part of Government policy in the sense that, if you have got a place that can be turned into a water weir, you should do so,” Mr Maphenduka said on the rocky banks of a water source that is breathing new life into his farm.
Mr Jonathan Mapenduka shows Mananda River which passes through his farm
According to Mr Maphenduka, last year saw him reap the first fruits of his almost decade-and-a-half long labour, as he finally managed to harness water that he says flows from the rock that sits beneath the river. In between the walls he constructed, pipes have been sunk in to suck up the precious liquid and then spit it out in Mr Maphenduka’s expectant fields.
“The wall is holding all the water for 200 metres. All that water is valuable to us for irrigation. Last season was our first attempt to irrigate crops. We started with a winter maize crop, which was a success using that water until harvest and I am very proud of that. We used this stretch of water until the rains came and the beauty of this place, the reason that I say its unique, is that the first rains come when the water body is still full and only increases the volumes here. This is because water is not coming from any streams but it’s coming from these very rocks and then into the ware.
“This wall gives us enough water for a major irrigation project. We have enough water now and all we need is capital to install major equipment and we are home and dry. This is a self-financed project and it is a major asset to not only me while I live but an asset to the country as well. It took us 14 years to be where we are because at first, we started collecting rocks from around in the bush but in the end, we decided to blast rocks from the surrounding areas to build the walls,” he said.
Mr Maphenduka, whose specialty had been cattle ranching over the years, has found himself suddenly in love with crop farming. It is a romance that was solidified by the rocky beauty of the place where he is drawing water to sustain the life of his beloved crops.
“In the bottom, it’s just rock. There is no sand. It’s just bed rock and nothing else. There is no place like that in the country. This is the only one and I think it is also great for Agro-tourism. This place is ideal for people who want to come and climb the rocks, spend the afternoon and have a whale of a time. It also has a lot of potential for fish farming because of the abundant water that we have around here,” he said.
The cornerstone of Mr Maphenduka’s project is a solar-powered irrigation scheme that he hopes will kick into high gear this year. When Sunday News visited the farm last week, land had been cleared for a horticultural project.
“We are due to take delivery of drip in the first week of April. We are going to put onion under drip. We will plant onions from here up to the centre while the other half will have cabbages. For now, we will stick to onions and cabbages and if we are satisfied, we will try other vegetables as well. We have harvested grass that is going to be used for composting. It will be used in the vegetable field for composting because we are using grass to build an organic fertiliser bank. An organic fertiliser is a heap of fertiliser which is not chemical. You use things that have rot like cow dung. It is basically the opposite of chemical fertiliser. If you are banking organic fertiliser, you have a lot of stuff for growing crops,” he said.
Mr Maphenduka said while he had initially thought of using diesel engines for the project, he had eventually settled on what he believed was a cleaner and more economical means of power generation.
“We thought we were going to use diesel engines to produce crops but we soon realised that it is not economic which is why we opted for solar and solar-driven pumps. We can still use a diesel engine to boost the pressure coming from the tanks but it’s not what we want to use. If our project is successful, we will double the power from solar and double the intake from pumps. Right now, we have an open field that has been cleared for crops but the water cannot yet reach there. For it to reach that part of the farm, the power behind the pumps would have to be doubled. At the moment our solar plant drives a two-horsepower pump and we finished putting it up in 2021. We only started using it last year and now, after we mount two more tanks, we have the ability to drip irrigate any crop on our fields without any trouble at all,” he said.
Mr Maphenduka said he was a strong supporter of the Pfumvudza/Intwasa method of cropping, which he has been utilising over the years.
“It must be emphasised that the system of Pfumvudza/Intwasa that has been popularised by President Mnangagwa is one that has been very beneficial to us. The only snag with it is that it is very labour intensive but if you do it as recommended, you will reap what you sow. Especially for a small-scale farmer with water, if I put this maize under drip irrigation, I will reap a lot of bags.
“The idea is to utilise a piece of land. You need to know how to do it. You should not allow large gaps between plants, the spacing between the crops should be perfect. The proximity of the fields to the water source recommends that you should utilise it to the maximum because delivering water to the back yard itself is costly. The nearer you are to the draw point, the better and you utilise every inch of the land. You have the water and you have the land, don’t waste it,” he said.
