Mutange Dam, across Mutange River, is a manmade earth fill embarkment dam located in Chisina Village, 30 km east of Gokwe and 35 km northwest of

Empress Mine Empress Mine Township is a populated place in the area formerly known as Salakuhle (misspelled as Salagushle) in Zhombe Communal Land, Kwekwe District of the Midlands Province in Zimbabwe. It is Zhombe's largest growth point yet officially it ...

, in the

Midlands Province Midlands is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of and a population of 1,614,941 (2012). It is home to various peoples. Located at a central point in the country, it contains speakers of Shona, Ndebele, Tswana, Sotho and Chewa, as well as of ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. Mutange Dam is 42 km by road from Gokwe and 49 km from

Empress An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

, 117 km from Kadoma and 146 km from Kwekwe via

(147 km via

Zhombe Joel Joel Business Centre is the location of district administrative offices, parliamentary advisory offices, the post office and police station in the town of Zhombe, Zimbabwe. It is 64 km northwest of Kwekwe and 77 km southeast of Gokwe ...

). It is owned and operated by the Ministry of Water Resources and Development.

Background

Mutange Dam was constructed mainly to augment fossil borehole water supply to

Gokwe Centre Gokwe Centre is a rural town in the Midlands province in Zimbabwe. The town is usually referred to as "Gokwe Centre" because the larger region is called Gokwe. Background Gokwe was originally a government station. It housed a district commissi ...

. It has a capacity of 4.950 million m³. Initially, the estimated cost of construction of the dam was $8,224,504.00 (2010-2014), but because of economic constraints faced by Zimbabwe contraction which took too long to complete, it cost over $130 million due to inflation and other economic and political challenges. The dam construction was finally completed in 2016. Mutange Dam Gokwe

Operations

The Mapfungautsi Plateau's Masoro Descent in Gokwe is the main

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

for

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when th ...

into the source tributaries of the

Mutange River Mutange Dam, across Mutange River, is a manmade earth fill embarkment dam located in Chisina Village, 30 km east of Gokwe and 35 km northwest of Empress Mine, in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. Mutange Dam is 42 km by road from ...

, the escapement southwest of the Mutange Dam.

has its source right up the plateau just about 1.5 km east of the

Kwekwe-Gokwe Highway The Kwekwe-Gokwe Highway or the R84-7 Highway is an all-weather bitumen macadam highway in Zimbabwe running from Kwekwe to Gokwe passing through Zhombe. As a trunk road it is officially designated as the P11 Highway. It is from Kwekwe to Gokwe b ...

().

is a tributary of the Sanyati River, which drains into the Zambezi River.

Beneficiaries

Mutange dam provides

drinking water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...

for both

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

and human beings. Apart from the villagers affected by the dam construction, who had to be resettled elsewhere by the government at about US$1.9 million, the rest of the community welcomed its long term benefits.

Mutange Dam Hydro Power Station

Electric pumps powered from the up-to-33 kV Mutange Hydro Power Station are set at Mutange Dam to drive raw water for over 30 km to

Gokwe town Gokwe Centre is a rural town in the Midlands province in Zimbabwe. The town is usually referred to as "Gokwe Centre" because the larger region is called Gokwe. Background Gokwe was originally a government station. It housed a district commissi ...

, the dam's chief beneficiary. Locally, the power station drives water to

Mutange Irrigation Scheme Mutange Dam, across Mutange River, is a manmade earth fill embarkment dam located in Chisina Village, 30 km east of Gokwe and 35 km northwest of Empress Mine, in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. Mutange Dam is 42 km by road from ...

, Chisina Township and the surrounding rural villages.

Mutange Irrigation Scheme

Mutange Dam is in

's Agro-Ecological Region, where the average annual rainfall is 550 mm.

Irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

is therefore a critical investment in the area. Mutange Dam's immediate major beneficiary is the

. Pumping and conveyance systems at Mutange Dam connects the irrigation scheme by a pipeline running 1,500 m to the field edge of the scheme's 134 hectares of arable land.

Chisina Township

Chisina Township, named after the Chisina chieftain, 750 m east of Mtange Dam, depends on the dam for water supply. () The township is in Mapfungautsi Parliamentary Constituency, Gokwe South District. Modern houses, including Chief Chisina's court hall, have been built in the village. The building of the court hall might be government approval of the Chisina chieftaincy which has been in limbo for almost 70 years in conflict with the neighbouring Njelele chieftaincy. Originally Gumbero, alias Chisina, had been chief of the better part of the Mapfungautsi area, then Sebungwe East, the area bounded by Ngondoma and Munyati rivers in the east and southeast. These two major natural boundaries separate Gokwe East district from Mashonaland West Province in the east and Kwekwe District of the

in the southeast Chief Chisina's original area of jurisdiction. The Chisina (Gumbero) chieftaincy is traceable as far back to the early 18th century when Chihwechematanda founded it on his arrival from

Buhera Buhera is a village in Zimbabwe. Location Buhera District is in Manicaland Province, in eastern Zimbabwe. It is about , by road, southwest of Mutare, the location of the provincial headquarters. This location is approximately , southeast of ...

in the now

Mashonaland East Province Mashonaland East, informally Mash East, is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 32,230 km2 and a population of approximately 1.35 million (2012). Marondera is the capital of the province. Geography Districts Mashonaland East i ...

. The second

Chief Gumbero Mutange Dam, across Mutange River, is a manmade earth fill embarkment dam located in Chisina Village, 30 km east of Gokwe and 35 km northwest of Empress Mine, in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. Mutange Dam is 42 km by road from ...

was Mataruka, the third was Makuvidziri, the fourth was Chinengwere and the fifth was Mudyachawaona who was downgraded to a headman under Chief Njelele by the

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

n government in the 1940s. The 6th Chief Gumbero, the first to be nicknamed

Chief Chisina Mutange Dam, across Mutange River, is a manmade earth fill embarkment dam located in Chisina Village, 30 km east of Gokwe and 35 km northwest of Empress Mine, in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. Mutange Dam is 42 km by road from ...

, was Tendaupenyu. When the then government asked him to identify his boundaries which Chief Njelele had crossed, he claimed, "Ndave nechigaro CHISINA chinhu," meaning, "My throne is left with nothing". From thence he was mocked CHISINA, and he accepted the mock as a way of protest. The Zimbabwean government is yet to amicably solve the Chief Njelele-Chief Chisina conflict.

References

{{Gokwe South District Dams in Zimbabwe Dams completed in 2016 Embankment dams