Zinwa reduces raw water charges
THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority has reduced its raw water tariffs for irrigating farmers by between 27 and 56 percent in an effort to ensure improved productivity and viability of the agricultural sector.
Zinwa corporate communications and marketing manager Mrs Marjorie Munyonga said the tariffs were set to bring relief to most farmers who over the years have been raising concern about the high cost of water.
A2 farmers now pay $5 per megalitre from $6,82 while A1 farmers pay $3 from $5. Communal farmers will pay $2 from $4,50.
“The reduced tariffs are expected to trigger demand for irrigation water in Zinwa’s dams, some of which have been under-utilised for years. Zinwa encourages all irrigating farmers to take advantage of these reduced tariffs and take up irrigation agriculture.
“The authority urges those interested in taking irrigation water from Zinwa managed dams to approach their respective catchment managers and enter into water abstraction agreements which allow them to legally draw water,” Mrs Munyonga said.
She said Zinwa will only reserve water allocations for those farmers with agreements and anyone who uses water from dams without the necessary agreement will be committing an offence in terms of the Water Act.
At the moment, the country has enough water to irrigate 114 466 hectares of land and out of this, water enough to irrigate 78 204 hectares is already committed in water abstraction agreements, meaning the water available for uptake is enough to irrigate 36 262 hectares.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa said although Zinwa reduced its tariffs for raw water to irrigation farmers there was a need for the country’s water regulator to further decrease so as to ensure the competitiveness of local farmers’ produce on the market.
“As for water there was a reduction which was put in place and we had a stakeholders meeting and pleaded with them to further reduce considering that as the agricultural industry we constitute 80 percent of the users of water. As you are aware we are now living in a global village and as an industry we need to be in line with our competitors when it comes to production cost, particularly in our region.
“In Zambia raw water is not charged at all yet we compete for the same market and this affects the competitiveness of our products. If any efforts are made to enhance the profitability of the farmers, then they will certainly improve on productivity and that means we will have more in terms of commodities and even have adequate to export,” said Mr Chabikwa.
He said there was a need for all stakeholders to recognise the importance of agriculture as a primary industry hence the need to ensure that costs of production are minimised.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister Davis Marapira who is responsible for crop production and irrigation development told Sunday Business that there was a need for utilities to offer subsided rates to farmers as agriculture was at the pinnacle in Government’s efforts to turnaround the country’s economy.
“We managed to engage the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) on reducing tariffs and it obliged and their tariffs have gone down by a half. Farming is an industry and as such rates charged on farmers should be heavily subsided to ensure that they don’t incur high production costs and doing so will definitely ensure increased production and viability.
“We are going to meet the Ministry of Energy and Power Development soon to engage them to ensure that Zesa reduces tariffs it charges to farmers by half because we can’t have a situation whereby farmers are billed almost the same as town dwellers,” said Dep Minister Marapira.
Contrary to the move taken by Zinwa, Zesa’s subsidiary the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company early this year wrote to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority, requesting a tariff increase to raise funds “to procure 200 megawatts capacity from emergency power sources” to cover the electricity shortfall occasioned by low water levels in the Kariba Dam.
The proposed tariff is between 12 cents (c) per kilowatt hour (kWh) and 16c per kWh. Currently Zesa is selling electricity at 9,8c per kWh, which is thought to be too low compared to regional averages of 14c per kWh.
Mr Chabikwa said farmers have been lobbying the Government to reduce tariffs by utilities.
“Since time immemorial electricity has always been subsided by 65 percent and it has been like that up until the dollarisation of the country’s economy in 2009, that’s when this facility was removed. It should be understood that farming is a primary and basic industry, which plays a pivotal role in turning around the country’s economy, thus the reason we have been lobbying both the Government and the power utility to reduce tariffs,” said Mr Chabikwa.