2.1.2 Land and water use in the National Park
Most of the reservoirs' shoreline in the National Park is very
well covered by vegetation and the reservoirs are surrounded by granite hills.
The rainfall pattern in the Matopos area during 2004-05 is presented in Table
3.3.
Chitampa is the only reservoir that was not very well covered
by vegetation in addition to its location in a sloppy area. The main vegetation
around this reservoir is composed of Phragmites sp., and
Typha sp. The waters have a very brownish colour; very similar to the
colour of the dry soils that is light brownish gray (Table 3.1). The pH of the
soils is 6.6 and the vegetation score is 2 as shown in Table 3.1. An algal
bloom was observed close to the shore (see Fig. B, annex 1). Two hippopotamus
were also observed in the reservoir.
Maleme reservoir has a littoral zone covered by Cyperus
spp. and short vegetation like Polygonum spp.
that occupies areas where the levels of water have receded. It has a concrete
dam wall in a rocky area (Fig. E, annex 1). The soils of the shoreline have a
pH of 5 and grayish brown colour. The reservoir waters were clear like normal
drinking water.
Mezilume reservoir is very thickly covered by vegetation
dominated by Cyperus spp,
Phragmites sp., Typha
sp., Numphaea sp., Myriophyllum sp.,
Polygonum spp. Some of
the littoral vegetation is shown in the annexes (Fig G to J,
Annex 2). The reservoir is surrounded by four rocky granite hills. The
reservoir water has a coffee colour. The water level had not dropped since the
first sampling trip, as it was the case at Maleme.
Mpopoma reservoir has a large surface area with clear water
and very good and thick vegetation covers its shoreline. Litter is easily
observed in the littoral areas from the falling vegetation. Many granite rocks
are found in and around reservoirs.
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