Building dams and communities in Zimbabwe

I have visited many small dams / garden projects in Africa over the past 20+ years, the very first ones I was involved with were in Mali. The local Peace Corps volunteers were helping rural communities near Kadiolo survey their watersheds and place small earthen dams in places where rain-water run-off would be captured and held to irrigate down-stream crops. And of course, this technology goes back way before aid agencies started promoting it. Archeological evidence from Egypt shows these ideas were being used nearly 6,000 years ago!

So, why are we still promoting such old technology? Why do communities still need our help to put these systems in place? There are many reasons, but the two most prevalent ones are capital and social organization. Some of the dams and weirs that CARE is building are substantial structures, capable of holding 10,000 cubic meters of water. To build and install one of these takes engineering expertise, material, equipment and skilled contractors, all of which cost money, often beyond what a poor rural community can afford. Community members can and do provide the land and much of the labour, sand, rocks etc., all of which are essential inputs for the project. But what they don’t have is enough money, and that is where donors can help.

The second issue of social organization involves working closely with community members to conceive and plan how a major piece of community infrastructure will be built and operated. Everyone knows that community involvement in the construction of capital works increases their sense of ownership in the facility, but getting these planned and setting expectations takes time. Equally important is the identification and sharing of the land that will be irrigated as a result of the dam. Upstream land may have to be taken out of production in order to protect the watershed by eliminating the erosion otherwise would carry silt into the dam and eventually render it useless. Almost always the best land is being used by particular families, so they may have to be compensated for sharing their land with others, allocation of this now (more) valuable land needs to be done in ways that are transparent and provide clear social and economic benefits to the community. Donors after all are not interested in building a dam that helps only a few community members benefit, but community consultations to reach agreement on how all of this gets realized are time-consuming, delicate and critical to the success of the project.

CARE staff in Zimbabwe are very skilled in this, and the evidence of their skill is clear when I consider how much larger and how many more families are involved in the dams we are building today in Zimbabwe compared to those I visited in the early 1990s when CARE first became involved in small dam building and rehabilitation works. When I crested the hill and saw a garden that supports 87 families, I knew then that CARE had taken its agriculture programs to a new level, working to change the daily lives of these families, but also, but enabling the production of so much produce, changing the health and economy of the entire district. Farmer after farmer (again mostly women, but with many men engaged) confirmed to me that they generally consumed ½ of what they produced, and sold the other ½. They told stories of people from other districts coming to see their farms/gardens, as news of their success (and high quality produce for sale) started to spread!

Another great set of examples as to how CARE is making a difference, one hectare at a time!