A diocese in Zimbabwe has rebuilt its own dam as part of faith-based responses to water challenges brought by climate change. Source: NCR Online.
The Diocese of Gweru in the country’s low rainfall Midlands province says the Holy Cross Dam, reconstructed at the beginning of this year, will go a long way toward reviving long abandoned agriculture projects.
The dam is also expected to create a greenbelt for local farming communities and drive other downstream economic activities to help support long-term sustainable development.
Gweru is in Midlands, one of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces that has experienced below-average rainfall in recent years. This has sent agriculture production into a tailspin and left thousands of households threatened by hunger.
The construction of the Gweru Diocese dam comes as the Catholic international aid agency Caritas is also helping rural communities with the rehabilitation of a defunct dam as part of efforts to cushion against climate-induced water stress.
The government has touted more dam rehabilitation and dam construction as the answer to escalated food production after successive poor harvests due to below-normal rainfall.
The Gweru Diocese has responded to those government goals by funding its own dam reconstruction.
“[The dam] was damaged by floods in 2008. The dam was the source of livelihood for the whole community as there was irrigation for the community, but it was no longer functional,” said Fr Kudakwashe Musvevereki, the Gweru Diocese pastoral director.
“The reconstructed dam is going to support irrigation for the community and there is also going to be fishery projects. People’s livestock will also get water from the dam,” Musvevereki told EarthBeat.
The Holy Cross Dam is one of many such projects being undertaken by the Catholic Church across the country as a direct response to climate change and the desire to boost food production among low-income communities.
FULL STORY
Zimbabwe diocese rebuilds dam in response to climate change, water scarcity (By Marko Phiri, NCR Online)
