Four hundred families have been relocated 100 km from their village in the drought-stricken Masvingo province of south-east Zimbabwe to make way for the construction of a dam.
Each household has been given a small plot of uncultivated land and between US$3,000 and $8,000 in compensation.
Many have complained that the money is not enough to compensate for the loss of their homes and livelihoods, and that the area lacks basic facilities such as schools, shops and even toilets.
The head of the village said that the move was not voluntary: “I had no choice but to vacate because the government wanted us out of the dam site,” he told the UN. “It was my ancestral home and not even any amount of compensation will make me happy.”
The Tokwe-Mukosi dam is being built by an Italian company with funding from the Zimbabwean government.
If successfully completed, it will be the largest inland dam in the country. Masvingo’s provincial administrator said: “The successful completion of the dam will result in the province having adequate food security and water supplies.”
In a 2013 report focusing on Zimbabwe, the World Food Programme said that Masvingo is one of three provinces that are seeing food insecurity at crisis level. The government is trying to complete the dam project by November 2014, but a local provincial newspaper has reported that the government was battling to raise enough money to complete its resettlement programme.
