WATER-ZAMBIA: Vanished Funds Mean Fields Stay Dry

• by Vusumuzi Sifile
 (lusaka)
• Tuesday, October 05, 2010
• Inter Press Service

It's an indication that in some cases the water crisis is due as much to poor governance as to actual lack of water resources.

Limited water resources and declining soil fertility had badly affected agricultural yields in the village of Chadiza.

When construction of the M’cheleka dam wall was completed in 2000, Hastings Mbuzi and hundreds of other villagers in Chadiza thought they would soon be rich. They would no longer need to travel long distances to other parts of the province to buy food.

The villagers presently grow maize, soya beans, sunflowers, sweet potatoes and groundnuts. The irrigation scheme held out the possibility of year-round cultivation, expanding into production of vegetables, sugar cane, bananas, beans, and cassava.

But the dam filled with water and then stood there, unused. The villagers waited patiently, hoping something could be done. 
In September 2008, it seemed a breakthrough had been achieved when the government released 190 million Zambian kwacha (about $40,000) for the completion of the project. The money was to cover 4.5 kilometres of canal construction, the installation of a pipe network and excavation of a drainage ditch; as well as training in operating, maintaining and managing the system.

This was in line with a government commitment in the country's Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) to support water resources development and management. 
But two years later, a report from the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) shows that while money released through the District Agriculture Coordinating Office in September 2008, and documents show it was all spent, the project on the ground remained uncompleted.

'All we know is that the money was released to the district agricultural officials to purchase material for the construction of the canals,' said Mbuzi, one of the 300 villagers who were earmarked to benefit from the scheme.

'At first the officials kept telling us that they would come back to us. We never got a clear explanation of what was happening. In the end, only 500 metres of the canal was constructed, and only six families are using it for irrigation,' he says.

The handful of farmers who the project has reached are reaping the benefits. According to Zambian anti-poverty network Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR), the six families have been able to grow winter maize and cabbage, and their average household income of $625 is presently almost double that of other farmers in the district who still lack access to water.

Mbuzi says the lucky families could have done even better if the irrigation scheme was complete. 'The six families spend too much time at the project because it is incomplete and a lot of things are not in place. For example, they need to be there always to keep animals away as the area is not fenced.'

Studying the Auditor General's report, CSPR says M'cheleka is only one of 10 unfinished irrigation schemes due to irregularities in expenditure. Another such scheme is the Nkhanya Dam, where the Auditor General found no work has taken place despite the July 2009 release of $100,000 from the Rural Investment Fund (RIF).

Mbuzi fears that the project will never be completed. The OAG report's confirmation that the funds were released only sets the matter up for eventual review by parliament; until that takes place sometime in the next two years, all that is certain is that no further money can be allocated.


The voices of the Chadiza farmers and the CSPR have joined others in calling for a forum including civil society and government departments to ensure greater accountability for spending, calling for a forum including civil society and government departments.

The M'cheleka Irrigation Scheme stands as a sad monument to the failure to do so.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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