Water resources and biofuel production after the fast-track land reform in Zimbabwe: Fid-Bau Portal

Water resources and biofuel production after the fast-track land reform in Zimbabwe

Mutopo, Patience / Chiweshe, Manase Kudzai

Discourses on the fast-track land reform programme in Zimbabwe have produced multiple and contested knowledge. Current debates have addressed the increase in biofuel production, which has been pioneered by different state and non-state actors. This has led to debates about understanding who wields more power in terms of the regulation of the agro-based fuel industry at a time of land redistributive reforms in Zimbabwe. Little attention, however, has been given to the issue of water resources in the current biofuel production projects. By examining the large-scale production of Jatropha and sugar cane in Chisumbanje and Mwenezi districts in Zimbabwe, we seek to unravel how the new investors have accumulated land and water resources. We analyse how this lead to water competition between the communities, settled in Chisumbanje and Mwenezi, and the new biofuel actors. In the following discussion, we seek to answer the following questions. What is the configuration of the new politics of water and post-land reform in Zimbabwe and how has it been impacted by biofuel production? How has competing water interests impacted principles of Water Act (1998) in Zimbabwe as biofuel production requires the use of large volumes of water? How are water resources creating conflicts over access and use in these communities? What role do water institutions play in these circumstances? How are different smallholder farmers and new conglomerates sharing water in a tense environment especially after fast-track land reform? We use ethnographic fieldwork in Mwenezi district and archival research in the case of Chisumbanje to outline various debates and viewpoints related to these questions.