This emerged at today’s launch of a report—Homeless, Landless and Destitute: The Plight of Zimbabwe’s Tokwe-Mukosi Flood Victims—that came out of research done by Human Rights Watch (HRW) between March and August 2014.
Government declared the displacements a national disaster so that sufficient humanitarian aid could be mobilised to respond to the resultant crisis.
About 20,000 villagers were displaced by flooding of the Tokwe-Mukosi basin in Masvingo where a major dam has been under construction for close to two decades.
They were initially moved to Chingwizi, a temporary camp for the internally displaced victims, before being forcefully driven to Nuanetsi Ranch in the same province where they were settled on one hectare plots, despite earlier government promises to give them four hectares per household.
Some victims of the flooding who have been moved to Nuanetsi against their will testified at the launch of the report and told of extreme suffering while blaming government for insensitivity.
Wanisai Muzenda, a widow who volunteered that she is on anti-retroviral therapy, said she was among the thousands that were forced off Chingwizi.
“I was forced to go to the one hectare plots at Nuanetsi after seeing my colleagues being beaten up (by police and army details). We wonder what kind of Zimbabwe this is, that makes us suffer like we are doing. I wish God could take me away to a better place,” said Muzenda.
She added that the area to which they had been relocated was prone to malaria, which had claimed several lives.
Her claim was repeated by Admire Mushenjere, a member of the community advisory board for the flood victims, who added that diarrhoea was also rife at Nuanetsi.
He said he had resorted to lending out his herd of cattle because there were no pastures in the area.
“This dam (Tokwe-Mukosi) is killing us instead of us benefiting from it,” said Mushenjere.
The dam was initiated to provide domestic and industrial water to the largely arid Masvingo province and is hoped to also be used for large irrigation projects.
Another victim, Kundiso Tevera, said there was insufficient space to build houses, especially for extended families, at Nuanetsi.
“Stomachs problems, especially among children, are common because the water is not suitable for drinking. Children are fleeing from school because of hunger which is so serious since there is no aid being given to us,” said Tevera.
Many flood victims had fled Nuanetsi to as far as Mvuma district in the Midlands province to avoid the humanitarian crisis, she added, and was worried that government officials were quiet about the disaster.
The HRW report says the future of the displaced villagers is uncertain because they were resettled on disputed land.
“Disputes over ownership, land use and control of the areas slated as relocation sites have introduced another layer of complication to the issues surrounding the relocation of over 3,000 families,” reads the report.
The government-controlled Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ) where President Robert Mugabe is patron is claiming that it bought the land in 1989, while the Nuanetsi Ranch Private Limited and Zimbabwe Bio Energy Limited separately insist the land is theirs as well.
“This dispute…does raise questions about whether the displaced at Nuanetsi Ranch will enjoy secure land tenure rights or whether they remain in danger of further displacement should claims of land ownership by private companies succeed,” noted the report.
The report noted numerous other challenges that the displaced villagers are facing, among them reports that government has misused aid funds, the closure of the Chingwizi clinic that the victims relied on, outstanding compensation for the settlers and aridity of Nuanetsi that makes farming activities difficulty.
Dewa Mavhinga, a Zimbabwean rights defender and HRW’s senior researcher, was the study’s focal person.
Mavhinga urged an investigation into the failure by dam constructors to free the sluice gates when it became clear that there would be flooding at Tokwe-Mukosi.
Engineering experts he interviewed indicated the gates must not be closed before the construction of a dam is complete.
He was concerned that government was planning to force the villagers to farm sugar cane in order to boost ethanol production.
Post published in: Lifestyle