adminAccording to an article carried in our edition yesterday, the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project, would be completed in three years following the coming on board of the Chinese who are set to provide $1,2 billion needed to carry out the project, viewed as the permanent solution to Bulawayo’s water problems.
The Minister of Water Resources, Management and Development, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, said contractors at Gwayi-Shangani Dam, a major component of the project, had been asked to return to site since work would soon commence.
“The Government has secured funding to the tune of $864 million from the Chinese Exim Bank. The $864 million had been budgeted for by the Chinese government,” said Minister Sipepa Nkomo.
We would like to applaud the Government for working tirelessly to ensure that Matabeleland gets sufficient water so that it could turn much of its land into a productive greenbelt along the pipeline.
However, the water issue has taken years to resolve and has attracted many cynics and it would take quite a while for the wider population to be convinced that the pipeline project could be completed in three years. It is important for the Government to move with haste on the Mtshabezi-Umzingwane pipeline to augment Bulawayo water supplies in order to allay any fears that the timelines on the Zambezi water were over-ambitious.
What has stalled the completion of the water project over the years was a lack of funding and it is our hope that with funding now secured, the project would become a reality sooner rather than later.
We learn that the Chinese would allocate an additional $345 million in their budget to complete the project, which will be undertaken in three phases. The first phase entails the completion of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam that will receive water from the Zambezi while the second would be construction of a pipeline from Gwayi-Shangani Dam to a reservoir in Cowdray Park suburb in Bulawayo. The third phase would see a 245 km pipeline being constructed from the Zambezi River to Gwayi-Shangani Dam.
The project has brought together personalities from different political persuasions and even the advisory council is made up of people of diverse backgrounds. We believe such unity of purpose will yield much fruit and rescue the project from political posturing that we have seen in the past. Matabeleland South Governor Angeline Masuku hailed the fruits of the Government’s Look East Policy, Zapu president Dr Dumiso Dabengwa said in spite of diverse opinions “national interests are of paramount importance” and Dr Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, said the different parties were represented at the unveiling of the advisory council because “the project is bigger than any party”.
As the euphoria of the news of Zambezi water finally reaching Bulawayo wanes off it is our hope that local authorities and all stakeholders in the region will start planning on how best they could take advantage of the various opportunities presented by the agricultural greenbelt, before visionaries from afar grab the opportunity right under their noses.
Online Reporter