THE CHALLENGE
The Licungo river is a major perennial river in central Mozambique with highly fluctuating discharges of between 10m3/s up to 3500m3/s. It provides a water resource for common rice production. A good understanding and control of the river’s discharge fluctuations is crucial to increase production and to avoid crop losses due to floods and drought.
THE SOLUTION
Resilience made the detailed topographic and hydrological studies of the Licungo river as the perquisite water availability for irrigation of the system. The model studied the use of the flood for water harvesting and irrigation through a system of retention dams and inlet structures, to create a resilient system that could both service the irrigation needs during dry periods and withstand the high flood situation in the rainy season.
The study was the basis for a full and authorized design plan with all required technical, economical and organizational details to construct a (flood and pump) irrigation, drainage and flood protection paddy scheme of 3,000ha in the Munda Munda river plain in Central Mozambique.
THE IMPACT
The hydrological study enabled the design to be feasible, viable and sustainable. This way, it effectively contributed towards food security for 5000 smallholder farmer families who produce with the scheme. The irrigation scheme also substitutes rice import with access to aromatic and organic rice with a (local) market volume of 6,000 tons a year.