The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Monday, September 18, 1967 — A Matabeleland cattle rancher, Mr Robin Watson, is building the country’s largest privately-owned dam on a site where pioneers crossed into the country in 1893.

The dam, when completed, will hold 2,5000,000,000 gallons, and Mr Watson expects it to cost £18 000.

His wife, Marion, said he was “mad” even to think about it. But a weary Mr Watson, whose biggest worry now is to find time to run his ranch, build the dam, and sleep, felt he would be dead if he waited for the Government to go ahead with the Oakley block dam.

The scheme is being financed by a governmentsponsored Farmers’ Irrigation Fund loan which Mr Watson must repay over the next 10 years. It is interest-free for the first two years.

Mr Watson, a former wartime captain in the South African air force, aims to banish the effects of drought while increasing the calving rate of his cattle.

He plans to irrigate 700 acres on Makado, his 24 000 acre ranch, 37 miles south of West Nicholson. Flood irrigated pastures, sub-divided into 10 acre paddocks, will account for 400 acres.

His 1 000 head will move into the paddocks during the rainy season when the veld will be allowed to grow undisturbed.

The other 300 acres will be used to grow feed for the cattle. The Messina-born rancher, who came to Rhodesia in 1950, hopes for an eventual turnover of £100 an acre through cattle every year.

The government is considering paying for dam water to be brought by canals to Africans in the Siyoka Tribal Trust Land, adjoining Mr Watson’s lower land.