More funds needed to speed up Shire Valley Transformation Programme—Parliamentary Committee

* About 96% of the construction over the 6km stretch is complete, which gives us hope that the project is indeed moving forward

* However, the committee also discovered that the project requires significantly more funds to avoid delays

* This will ensure it is completed on time, allowing farmers to begin accessing it as planned

By Elia Chibwe, MANA

The Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture maintains that the Shire Valley Transformation Programme requires significantly more funding to be completed within the scheduled timeline.

In an interview with the media after Parliamentary session on Wednesday in Lilongwe, vice-chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Ulemu Chilapondwa highlighted that the committee is happy with tremendous progress of the project — however more funds are needed to speed up the project.  

“We are very happy and impressed with the tremendous progress,” he said. “About 96% of the construction over the 6km stretch is complete, which gives us hope that the project is indeed moving forward.

“However, the committee also discovered that the project requires significantly more funds to avoid delays. This will ensure it is completed on time, allowing farmers to begin accessing it as planned.”

He urged government to be committed on funding the project as one way for preventing stoppages of the project, saying: “In our report, we urge the government to ensure that funds are provided promptly to prevent any interruptions or delays in progress.

“Timely funding is crucial to completing the project on schedule,” said Chilapondwa, adding that first phase is expected to be completed in December so that farmers should start growing crops along the stretch.

In his report, the committee’s chairperson, Sameer Suleman said the programme aims at increasing productivity and commercialisation of households in Shire Valley and improve sustainable management of utilisation of natural resources.

He urged government to ensure that beneficiaries would also be able to benefit from the subsidised irrigation materials: “The committee will be happy if beneficiaries would also be able to benefit from the subsidised irrigation materials such as solar pumps in order to put the project in good use.”

Suleman added that beneficiaries around the project area are estimated to be 279,550, which is 60,772 households and the project aims at providing irrigation to over 43,000 hectares through phase construction of new gravity fed irrigation scheme to 27,600 hectares of agriculture land.

He also indicated that the program is being done by government with support of World Bank and African Development Bank.

In April this year, the Shire Valley Transformation Programme’s Project Coordinator Dr. Stanley Khaila, indicated that Chikwawa District farmers that are closer to the intake of the mega irrigation canal were to be provided with water for irrigation by this month of September.

The assurance was after Parliamentary Budget & Finance Committee and Agriculture Minister Sam Kawale visited the construction site in Chikwawa on separate days to assess its progress of Phase 1.

The Members of Parliament were first taken on a tour of the site at Kapichira Dam where construction a redesigned water intake will take place, whose initial investment all got washed away due to flooding of the Shire River from the effects of Cyclone Ana in 2022.

Thus it was redesigned to be resilient to climate change and other forces as was the case two years ago and at the site, Project Coordinator Khaila appraised the Parliamentary Committee — led by its chairperson, MP for Nsanje Lalanje, Gladys Ganda — that Phase 1 is at 63% complete and sets a deadline of May 2025.

But before that, the beneficiary communities that are close to the canal’s first phase from the intake were to have water flowing into their fields once the secondary pipelines are completed while contractor, Synohydro continues with its 52km stretch of canal construction.

There are two contractors on site, Condril for the construction of the intake and 6km stretch of the canal passing through Majete Game Reserve and Synohydro for the 50km distance to Lengwe National Park.

The mega canal, touted as the biggest irrigation project in sub-Saharan Africa, is 118km long up to Bangula in Nsanje District.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express