Prospective beneficiaries of the Shire Valley Transformation Programme (SVTP), the country’s biggest irrigation project, will have to wait longer as the implementers have further extended the roll out date from this month.
SVTP project coordinator Stanley Khaila in an interview yesterday said farmers’ cooperatives will not start accessing water from the project’s canals this month as communicated last September because of challenges encountered at Kapichira Dam in Chikwawa.
He said the contractor building a temporary conveyance to tap water from Shire River to the programme’s canal has encountered a rock which needs careful blasting to avoid damaging other structures, including Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) draining dykes.
Said Khaila: “If we tamper with the draining dyke, it will be a big risk. So, we want to make sure the draining dyke will remain intact when they are blasting this rock. We also have a coffer dam there, which is attached to the rock base which the contractor must blast. This also makes it very risky.
“Engineers are in discussion with stakeholders to make sure that whatever method is used should not put any of these structures at risk. If this is tampered with carelessly, we may experience a very bad situation. So because of this I cannot give the exact date on when this will be completed.”
Reacting to the development, Kambadwe and Mlambe cooperatives chairpersons Samson Beyadi and Chief Mphando expressed frustration with the delays to rollout a multi-billion kwacha mega irrigation project.
Beyadi, whose cooperative has 1 002 hectares with 254 farmers, said the further delays to start tapping water from the project has frustrated some farmers who were committed to transform their lives.
“Chikwawa is perceived to be one of the districts whose people are lazy and rely on handouts, but we wanted to prove that perception wrong. Unfortunately, most cooperative members are now demotivated with the delays,” he said.
On his part, Mphando whose cooperative has 1137 hectares ready to cultivate soya beans, sorghum, groundnuts and mangos, also noted that some of the cooperative members started shunning meetings to show their frustration on the delay.
He said the number of farmers showing interest has now drastically gone down and that some have ventured into other businesses to make ends meet.
In September last year, Khaila indicated that the farmers would start accessing water from the project from June 2025 after shifting the deadlines from December 2024.
During President Lazarus Chakwera’s visit to the project site in Chikwawa last year, it emerged that an additional $150 million (about K263 billion) was required for the completion of Phase 1 of the project.
The SVTP targets to irrigate 43 370ha in Chikwawa and Nsanje districts where 48 400 households are set to benefit through irrigation.
Works include construction of 118-kilometre (km) canal as well as bridges, drainages, footbridges and flood protection banks.
SVTP is jointly financed by the World Bank, African Development Bank, International Development Association, Fund for International Development, Global Environment Facility and the Malawi Government with a budget of about $519 million or about K910 billion ($234 million in phase one and $285 million in phase II).
