Ngondoma Dam is a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

on the

Ngondoma River Ngondoma River is a river in Zhombe Communal Land, Kwekwe District in the Midlands Province, Midlands province of Zimbabwe. Location Ngondoma River is in the Midlands Province, although some claim it to be in Mashonaland West Province. Rivers ar ...

located 500 meters west of the Empress Mine Township 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 ...

. The dam is 67 kilometers northwest of the Kwekwe and 54 km southwest of Kadoma (by air). The Zhombe Communal Land lies to the east of the dam, and the Chief Chisina, Gokwe land is on its west. The dam belongs to the Zhombe East, Kwekwe District, and is one of the 1,620 dams in the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. Dams in this province make up 17% of all dams in Zimbabwe and are managed by ZINWA (Zimbabwe National Water Authority).

Background

The Ngondoma Dam was constructed in 1967 to supply the Empress Nickel Mine and

Ngondoma Irrigation Scheme Ngondoma Irrigation Scheme is located in Zhombe, Kwekwe District in Zimbabwe's Agro-Ecological Region Three. The average annual rainfall for the location is 550 mm. The scheme area is 44.4 4 hectares.Jamesm 10.1.1.196.2228.pdf Chapter 9.4.1.2A ...

with water in 1968. It supplies the government managed irrigation scheme 900 000 cubic metres of water per year.

Operations

The Mapfungautsi Forest in Gokwe is the main drainage basin 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 Ngondoma River. The Ngondoma River has three sources - one in what was known as Ngondoma Crown Land, located just southwest of the Mapfungautsi Plateau in the

Gokwe District The Gokwe Region consists of the land in the area around Gokwe centre that was formerly under the control of the hangweanguage people, a Shona-speaking group, which lay in the northern part of the Midlands province of northwestern Zimbabwe, and ...

, the second from the Chikombera River from the Gokwe end, and the third from the Chebechebe River on the Zhombe side. The Chikombera and Chebechebe rivers were both tributaries of Ngondoma River with the dam being constructed at their confluence.

Siltation

The initial capacity of Ngondoma at the time of construction was 7 million cubic meters, enough to supply its intended beneficiaries. Siltation is affecting the dam's capacity, but no water shortage has been experienced yet. Ngondoma is an earth-filled dam with a simple Barrage dams mechanism at the far west end of the dam wall. It has an unmanned spillway system with fully automatic flap sluice gates. Some villagers in the catchment areas practice stream bank cultivation and graze their animals in the catchment which leads to erosion upstream of the dam, resulting in siltation. Illegal

gold panning Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts especi ...

upstream, especially on the Zhombe side of Ngondoma River, is also another source of siltation. The Ngondoma 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. Soil erosion management upstream is lacking, and siltation in the Ngondoma reservoir is anticipated to continue. The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) seeks the cooperation of villagers and other stakeholders in the catchment area to help alleviate the problem. EMA is taking measures against riverbank saboteurs.

Beneficiaries

The 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 people. Apart from the

irrigation scheme Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been develo ...

, the dam waters Empress Mine Growth Point, Columbina RSC, Villages this Zhombe side of the dam and the Gokwe side of it. Legally or illegally, villagers use the dam water for watering gardens, livestock watering, brick moulding and other domestic purposes. Fisheries' co-operatives have their share in the Ngondoma Dam too; however,

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

is not practised here even though multiple of fish species have been either caught or spotted in the Ngondoma Dam.

Environmental damage

Canal water misuse

In the case of the

, water goes to the scheme from the dam through a 5.8 km gradient-driven open canal. Some villagers illegally take water from the canal to mould bricks and for the irrigation of small gardens along the

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

. Some of this water overspills from these illegal gardens back into the Ngondoma River. This behaviour weakens water supply to the scheme yet water leaves the dam outlet full throttle.

Fish harvesting

Because Ngondoma Dam is in the communal lands, it has open access for fishing, and some illegal fishers

overfish Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in the ...

have depleted the fish population in the Ngondoma reservoir.

Flora

Ngondoma Dam is surrounded by a rich flora as on record of the Flora of Zimbabwe. Immediately to the east of the dam has inviting beauty in flora such as the

Acacia amythethophylla ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus nam ...

, Mopane, Euphorbia hirta,

Jacaranda mimosifolia ''Jacaranda mimosifolia'' is a sub-tropical tree native to south-central South America that has been widely planted elsewhere because of its attractive and long-lasting violet-colored flowers. It is also known as the jacaranda, blue jacaranda, ...

Albizia harveyi ''Albizia'' is a genus of more than 160 species of mostly fast-growing subtropical and tropical trees and shrubs in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae. The genus is pantropical, occurring in Asia, Africa, Madagascar, America and A ...

Lantana camara ''Lantana camara'' (common lantana) is a species of flowering plant within the verbena family (Verbenaceae), native to the American tropics. It is a very adaptable species, which can inhabit a wide variety of ecosystems; once it has been introduc ...

, Senna singueana,

Typha capensis ''Typha capensis'' is an aquatic plant known from southern and eastern Africa as far north as ''Uganda''. It has also been reported from Brazil. The rhizomes of ''Typha capensis'' are used medicinally in southern Africa. It is reported to improv ...

and Bauhinia macrantha just to name a few from the 112 records list compiled by Tessa Ball on November 9, 1996.

References

{{Kwekwe District Dams in Zimbabwe Dams completed in 1968 Embankment dams 1968 establishments in Rhodesia