Farmers should gear for agreements renewal
Once again the time to renew water agreements is fast approaching and raw water users, mainly the irrigating farmers should starting working on their water budgets ahead of the commencement of the water year on April 1, 2018.
BY OPERATION of law, all subsisting agreements will lapse on March 31, paving way for the new water year. After the lapse of the agreements, all raw water users intending to use water from Zinwa managed dams are required to renew their agreements while new users are also required to submit their applications for water to Zinwa. Upon successful renewal users and Zinwa then sign water abstraction agreements that allow the users to draw water from their respective dams for the water year.
A water abstraction agreement is a legal document that specifies the obligations of both parties in relation to water supply and use. The agreement contains information such as the dam from which water will be supplied, the user’s allocation, the point at which the water would be abstracted and the tariff to be used in billing the water, among other things. Water abstraction agreements are provided for in terms of Statutory Instrument 206 of 2001 which states;
“No surface water permit shall be required of a person who wishes to abstract surface water from a water storage works or share of a water storage works vested in the State or the National Water Authority for any purpose mentioned in paragraph (a), but such person must enter into an abstraction agreement with the National Water Authority in terms of subsection (6) of section 39 of the Act.
Water abstraction agreements are quite an important tool for managing and planning the available water resources. They also help in the projection of future water demand.
The agreements also help protect water users and guarantee them of the availability of their water throughout the period of use. When one enters into an agreement with Zinwa, a water allocation is then reserved in the dam, exclusively for use by the agreement holder. The water becomes unavailable for use by anyone else and the allocation can only be released from the dam only at the instance of the agreement holder.
As such, the agreement holder is assured of his water throughout the irrigation season. It is also on the basis of that allocation that the water user gets billed.
In the past Zinwa had challenges with raw water users, particularly farmers, who apply for water that is way above their requirements and end up getting saddled with huge water bills they cannot afford. So as the water year beckons, it is prudent that farmers fully appreciate their crop water requirements and come up with realistic water budgets that do not, in the end, come back haunt them.
Using raw water for purposes other than primary purposes without an agreement constitutes a criminal offence in terms of the Water Act and offenders are liable to prosecution. In the coming water year, Zinwa will intensify its monitoring activities along river channels to flush out all illegal users and has already started work on capacitating its personnel to prepare them for the task ahead.
For more information you can contact the Zinwa Corporate Communications and Marketing Department on pr@zinwa.co.zw or callcentre@zinwa.co.zw. You can also follow the Zimbabwe National Water Authority Facebook Page or follow us on Twitter @zinwawater