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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter —
THE government has availed $10 million towards the construction of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam in Matabeleland North as it targets to complete the project by July 2016. A high-powered ministerial delegation toured the project site yesterday, as the government reaffirmed its commitment to finish the project.
Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo, the Senior Minister of State in the President’s Office, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo, Water, Environment and Climate Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Matabeleland North Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Cain Mathema emphasised government’s commitment towards the completion of the $121 million dam.
The dam is the third largest in the country after Tokwe-Murkosi and Mutirikwi, and is a key component of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project which envisages a 245KM pipeline from the Zambezi River to parched Bulawayo.
“I’m committing myself to mobilising $10 million so that the construction of the dam continues,” Minister Chinamasa told a news conference after the tour.
“The $10 million is expected to take us up to December. We’ve economic challenges of course but I’m confident that the situation will improve and we’ll manage to meet the 2016 target.”
He said it was regrettable that delays were costing the government a lot of money, adding that in future, the government would only undertake new projects after old ones had been completed.
The minister revealed that delays in completing Tokwe Murkosi Dam has seen the project cost rising from $70 million to $250 million.
Once complete, he said the dam would see the development of massive irrigation schemes that will benefit communities.
Minister Kasukuwere said the Gwayi-Shangani Dam would definitely be completed by July 2016.
“We’re going to be doers and we’ll not be associated with failures of the past as far as the construction of this dam is concerned. In July 2016, the dam will definitely be 80 percent complete and we’ll be embarking on the next phase, which is the construction of a pipeline from Gwayi-Shangani Dam to a reservoir in Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park suburb while the third and final phase would be the construction of a 245KM pipeline from the Zambezi River to the Gwayi-Shangani Dam,” said Cde Kasukuwere.
He concurred with Cde Chinamasa that the country’s dams should be fully utilised.
“We’ve invested more than $2 billion in water bodies but most of them are lying idle. All the country’s dams are using only 25 percent of their potential,” he said.
“There’s need for us to start expanding and make sure that we bring back the money spent on dams through irrigation schemes.”
Knowledge Mudzengerere, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) chief engineer said financial constraints were seriously impacting progress as the contractor is owed more than $13 million.
The ministerial delegation also visited China Africa Sunlight Energy in Lupane, which is expected to begin its mining operations next month.
Online Reporter