Water Resources Management

Holding global institutions and the private sector accountable for their actions and ensuring they respond to social and environmental concerns.

Water is a core development issue in Zimbabwe. It is central to agriculture, rural, urban and industrial development. Water is a key input in the mining and energy sectors and it is fundamental for navigation, fisheries, national parks, natural ecosystems, recreation and assimilating waste from urban, industrial, mining and agricultural sources of pollution. Available estimates made in 2007 suggest that agriculture accounts for 82% of surface water use while domestic and industrial use accounts for about 15% and mining 3%.

Rainfall varies spatially from the eastern highlands (1100mm/year) to low lying areas in the south and west (400mm/year). Temporal and inter annual variability are high, impacting on availability and reliability. Apart from a few places in the eastern highlands, water availability is decreasing in the rest of the country mainly due to population growth, climate change and agricultural expansion. The country therefore has to rely on storage works in order to ensure water security, not only during dry seasons but also during drought years. The country has invested heavily in the construction of storage works and currently Zimbabwe has a total storage capacity of 8,7x106Ml with a 10% annual yield of 3.67 x106Ml from over 8000 dams.

Climate change is predicted to alter rainfall and increase evaporation and extreme events such as floods and droughts. However, currently key water resources planning activities that include dam and irrigation scheme design and operations do not take into account climate change. Climate change effects on agriculture, crop and irrigation water demands and on floods needs to be integrated in the planning of water resources and in dam design, operations and management of dams and other water infrastructures.

Communities are highly dependent on their water sources and due to the decline of the water level in some areas the citizens are immediately affected as well as their livestock and harvest hence posturing more problems. Because of that CAN Zim will work on management of water resources in Zimbabwe. We intent to rehabilitate water sources and provide material to ensure the sustainable usage of the water source to prevent exhaustion.

CAN Zim will participate in the development and implementation of new and relevant policies and regulatory frameworks that responds to the needs of the restructured and evolving agricultural sector. CAN Zimbabwe recognizes that agriculture is one of the key priority sectors in achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. However, frequent droughts, inadequate resource allocation to key drivers of agriculture growth and sometimes inconsistent and ad hoc policy actions associated with agricultural policy have made it impossible to achieve the stated goals.

Considering that 80% of the Zimbabwean citizens are working in the agricultural sector and are therefore highly dependent on the climate. CAN Zim will work hard to increase livelihood capacities and creating diversity to ensure resistance against climate changes for the benefit of the community. Furthermore, CAN Zim will advocate for sustainable agriculture to mitigate negative impacts which would worsen the situation.

CAN Zim know that:

• To turnaround Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector, there is need to attract diverse resources to finance the development of the sector.
• national budget has to support investment in the agriculture sector in line with the Maputo Declaration under the African Union in 2003.