The Chinese government, through the Chinese Exim Bank, has availed $864 million for the project, which is viewed as a permanent solution to Matabeleland’s perennial water woes. The Minister of Water Resources, Management and Development, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, has already appointed a 23 member Advisory Council to spearhead the project.
Nkomo said the major role of the council, which is chaired by Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union President, Donald Khumalo, was to ensure that people along the pipeline and within the region benefitted from the project.
“The council will very soon set up secretariat offices where most of the project’s activities will be coordinated. We want issues like recruitment of staff for the project and allocation of the water to be transparent” said Khumalo.
Apart from agriculture, the ZCFU president said local councils such as Lupane and Bulawayo would also benefit from the water project.
The NMZWPT was mooted in 1912 but serious efforts to implement the project started in 1998 when the Dumiso Dabengwa-led Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust was formed.
The water project was mired in controversy in 2010 when Minister Nkomo announced a government takeover of the project. Members of the now-defunct trust, including Dabengwa, resisted the takeover, arguing that renaming the project would not add any value.
Dabengwa and Nkomo have, however, buried their differences and agreed to work together towards the fulfillment of the initiative. Nkomo said the money from the Chinese would be paid back over 25 years at an interest rate of about three percent. The construction of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam has already started. The second phase of the project is a pipeline from Gwayi-Shangani Dam to a reservoir in Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park. The third and final phase will be the construction of a 245 km pipeline from the Zambezi River to the Gwayi-Shangani Dam.
Post published in: News