This year marks the first rainy season that Margaret Kalimina will not have to worry about a holey 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.
Ms Kalimina is that a Bemba name? We’d like to see Lozis ,Kaondes,Tumbukas and Luvales also get such houses -end Bemba favouritism NOW
Who told you this name is Bemba? This must be Lenje/Soli or Tonga! In any case this is a UPND area still they will vote for HH despite benefiting in this way.
This’ most important news so far today. Progress is good for country & we want to hear more about how people’s lives are being uplifted everywhere. For many people this what politics means. It’s also good to hear there are 3 such schemes going on @ moment. We shouldnt allow all water that God Blesses us with each year to run to ocean without extracting value. GRZ should post You Tube clips & do documentaries of how these & other projects like dual carriage ways, decongestion of Lusaka, hospitals, schools, etc will benefit people. That’s how people will know & appreciate scale of development going on around country. God Bless Zambia
Kalimina is a Kaonde Name. Havent we moved on further from which tribe who comes from? The more prolific of you have slept with every region, district, tribe and creed in Zambia so…
@Mzambia wa zamani
You are very ignorant.You should be ashamed of yourself. Why do you see tribalism in anything please try to be part of the solution and not the problem. No wonder traffic on LT has reduced because of dander heads like you. All the intelligent bloggers have disappeared and its because of silly chaps like you.
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.
A three roomed house and much better than a thatched hut but be mindful that such a house does not require the likes of Margaret Kalimina to have large families!
Good development
Where are the UPND mongrels who bark at anything that passes. Say something. Again they will see everything wrong with Lungu in this project even if their relative may have benefited. For them it’s not about development, it’s about Lungu. They hate him for all the good he stands for, just so one little devil can take his fork, oh! I mean trident, to State House.
His excellence Ecl and pf mean business in terms of developing Zambia and not promoting hatred, tribalism and division, let the PhD (pull him down) continue with there useless scheme, us Zambian want development not walking out of parliament, may God bless his excellence Ecl
A good comfortable home to live in gives people confidence and dignity. It’s not all about status. I hope everyone will one day have a place to live they can be proud of, without someone else losing out.