By George Banda
Government says construction works of the Utale Irrigation scheme under Malawi Resilience and Disaster Risk Management Project (MRDRMP).has been fully completed.
The scheme is part of 12 water supply system schemes government targets to rehabilitate across the country in the Sub-Component 2.1: “Rehabilitating and augmenting critical water supply infrastructure.” of MRDRMP.
MRDRMP which is a World Bank financed project, is the extension of Malawi Drought Recovery and Resilience Project (MDRRP) which came effective in February, 2017.
The parent project, MDRRP focuses on rehabilitating five rural gravity fed piped water supply schemes and drilling of 310 rural boreholes drilling of 14 high yielding boreholes for Central and Southern Region Water Boards.
Speaking in an interview Francis Wadi, who is Principal Irrigation Engineer in the Department of Agriculture and a Technical Team Member for MRDRMP project, emphasized that all construction works at the Utale irrigation scheme have been accomplished as the scheme covers 110 hectares of land.
According to Wadi, the scheme is to be powered by the state of art solar energy which has been installed with automated system to allow the panels to turn along with sun direction and the whole project is pegged at K3.2 billion.
He said; “The project is progressing well as for Irrigation currently at Utale irrigation scheme we have achieved 110 hectares out of projected 200 hectares and we have trained a number of farmers who are directly benefiting from the same scheme.”
“At this time, we have completed 100% of the construction works that was planned to be based at the scheme despite encountering natural disaster constraint that impacted our operations and over 57 hectares out of the 200 hectares which was targeted on the site was washed away by Cyclone Ana.”
Wadi added; “Currently the scheme is in use with 25 hectares already cultivated and other parts of the scheme is under preparations, by the end of this month it will be fully completed.”
On sustainability assurance, Wadi explained that the farmers were trained in sustainable scheme management and were also taken on various educational trips to learn from their counterparts in other areas, and the farmers have also embarked on joint ventures which will facilitate smooth marketing of their produce.
“Farmers are very excited with this development as it proves to improve their productivity, meanwhile over 543 farming families are using the scheme and more are expected to be incorporated after noting the benefits their friends are registering.”
The project also facilitated capacity building through formation and training of borehole water point committees for the newly constructed boreholes and Water User Associations (WUAs) for the rehabilitated schemes.
And under MRDRMP, government intends to rehabilitate over 12 water supply system schemes including Ntonda in Ntcheu, Chididi in Nsanje, and Nkula in Machinga among others.
In awake of drought that hit Malawi during 2015/16 season, access to safe water is still a major challenge to many households exacerbated by episodes of heavy flooding over the past years.
According to 2020 World Bank report on Malawi Economic Monitor: Malawi’s Water and Energy Challenges can be Resolved water plays a critical role in Malawi’s economy as water-reliant sectors contribute an estimated 35% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), despite the natural resource being here scarce. Water resources are under threat from severe watershed degradation and climate change.
