Senkwasi Irrigation Scheme is a cultivated area in
Gwesela West
Gwesela West is ward number 9 of the 33 wards in Zibagwe Rural District Council of Kwekwe District. Its center is at Senkwasi Irrigation Scheme 14.5 km north east of Zhombe Joel ( Zhombe Joel is along the ''Kwekwe Gokwe Road'') and 14.5&nbs ...
55.5 km (by air) northwest of
Kwekwe
Kwekwe ( ), known until 1983 as Que Que, is a city in the Midlands province of central Zimbabwe. The city has a population of 119,863 within the city limits, as of the 2022 census, making it the 7th-largest city in Zimbabwe and the second-most p ...
in Chief Gwesela's area of jurisdiction. It is 14.6 km northeast of
Zhombe Joel.
Background
Senkwasi is sometimes called Sengwazi, Sengwasi or Senkwazi. The place was named after Senkwasi River which is the main contributor into the Senkwasi Dam. Senkwasi Dam is just 300 metres south on coordinates -18.57925° and 29.44065°
Senkwasi is one of the 2 working irrigation schemes in Zhombe. The larger of the two is
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 ...
near
Empress Mine. However, in the original Zhombe Communal Land (not Zhombe Constituency) there are two more irrigation schemes;
Mayoka Irrigation Scheme in Ward 5 and
Exchange Irrigation Scheme
Exchange Irrigation Scheme is a 165 hectare irrigated arable land in Zhombe Communal Land but in Silobela Constituency in Kwekwe District of the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. It is 37 km southwest of Zhombe Joel, 83 km northwest of K ...
in Silobela Constituency.
Senkwasi Scheme is also one of the 17 irrigation schemes 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 ...
.
Operations
It has 40 plot holders.
[Garry Wasserman , August 198]
US Aid to Zimbabwe _ Evaluation Project Report No: 9
, Appendix D , ppD-2 , Table D-1.
The fields are watered by canal water ferried by an electric-engine pump from Senkwasi Dam. There are also several hand-driven boreholes along the west end of the scheme.
The irrigation scheme has become not so viable of late because of the regular load shedding by the national electric power authority,
ZESA
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, (ZESA) whose official name is ZESA Holdings (Private) Limited, is a state-owned company whose task is to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity in Zimbabwe. It has organized this task by delegatio ...
.
Irrigation system
Farmers here use surface irrigation in which they siphon water from the lateral canal and flood the furrows that run between crop rows. All the fields are subdivided such that farmers could use furrows, borderstrips or basins depending on water pressure.
When the electric engine is down farmers use the various hand-driven boreholes to water portions of their lots manually. In times like these they adopt localized irrigation where water is distributed under low pressure through pipes of various lengths and size.
Near by Places
*
Empress Mine
13.5 km north.
Bearing 1°.
*
Navhata Primary School (Nevada)
7 km North
Bearing 6°.
*
ST FAITH Primary School
3.7 km South SW
Bearing 207°
*
ST PAULS Primary School
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Stanza, in poetry
* Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band
* Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise
* Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...
5.5 km East
Bearing 82°
References
{{Kwekwe District
Agriculture in Zimbabwe
Rural community development