Stray elephants from Kruger National Park have descended on the neighbouring Tshikwalakwala irrigation scheme outside Beit Bridge, where they continue to destroy the fence, canals and crops, Mirror has established.

When our correspondent visited the village, situated about 135km east of the Beit Bridge border town, members of the community complained about the fact that nearly 1km of the fence had been pulled down. The damaged canals were also serving as signs of destruction by the marauding elephants.

The councillor for the area, Mr Enock Ndou, said the irrigation scheme, measuring 65 hectares, had also been hard hit by a serious water shortage as a result of the lack of funds to purchase diesel used in powering the engine pumps. The scheme has three engines, of which one is not working.

“Our main worry is the shortage of fuel to power the engines. Once again the fence was recently destroyed by elephants from the Kruger National Park in South Africa and villagers are now reluctant to cultivate land because their fear is that the jumbos might still come and destroy the crops,” he said.

Established in 1963, the Tshikwalakwala irrigation scheme is the second largest scheme in the district, after the Shashe scheme, and it has a total of 208 plot holders, with each cultivating 0.2ha. The Peace Parks Foundation of South Africa recently donated an electric fence to the value of R250 000 to the Shashe Irrigation Scheme to help deter stray elephants from destroying crops in the fields.

“Our farmers have since reduced the hectarage to 20ha, due to a constant shortage of water and the continuous problem of elephants,” Ndou said.

Meanwhile, villagers in Tshikwalakwala have expressed concern over the poor road network, saying it impacted negatively on the distribution of food. A local village head, Ms Elisa Salani, urged the local grain distribution firm to set up a mobile depot in the area to avert the looming food crisis in the area. “We have never had any maize distribution depot in our village and we are therefore appealing to the authorities to assist us since this area is very dry and our irrigation scheme is not functioning properly,” she said.

Salani said local villagers were forced to travel long distances to grinding mills in Sengwe in neighbouring Chiredzi district near Mozambique.

Beit Bridge is a drought-prone district, which is normally characterized by low rainfall, and the local population relies mainly on irrigation farming.