IRRIGATION WATER PRICING AND COST RECUPERATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY OF IRRIGATION PROJECTS IN NYANYADZI, ZIMBABWE

Water pricing and recuperation of the costs of irrigation investment have been litigious issues for many decades in the dry area of Nyanyadzi because the community view irrigation as a development expenditure, financed by donors and the government for backward areas through lowering of food prices and reduction of tariffs. The soaring charges for irrigation water are questioned, as well as, the diminutive percentage of farmers who fundamentally recompense the charges. The failure to institute clear cost recuperation and water pricing methods has threatened the viability and sustainability of irrigation projects in the study area. The study used both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The study revealed that where the economy is usually subsidized, convalesce the cost of water delivery is much more complicated and difficult. In the case of establishing user fees, these should be estimated as a percentage of the "traditional user's capability for payment" derived from irrigation benefits (the net increase in farmers' income as a result of irrigation). Nyanyadzi has an opportunity in irrigation led development, if stakeholders address critical challenges in the planning, design, water delivery and maintenance of its irrigation systems. Since Nyanyadzi faces severe budgetary difficulties in financing irrigation projects, it is obligatory to consider the foundation on which irrigation projects operate and impose the principle of self sustaining. Sustainable methods of irrigation evaluation and collection of fees must be considered in light of Nyanyadzi's economic and technical environment. The research noted that water use efficiency is required in order to maximize the benefits farmers derive from the irrigation projects and extraordinarily high user fees should be avoided in the project development stages, where the payment capability is much less at the beginning than at the maturity stages of irrigation projects.