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The dam is a major component of the $1,2 billion National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (NMZWP), which has been on the cards for 100 years.
In an interview yesterday, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) Gwayi Catchment manager Mr Fortune Musoni said the contractor, China International Water and Electric, has moved to the site.
“We have handed over the site to the contractor and some activity is taking place. However, we expect construction work to intensify in October. You are aware that site surveys were done way back and the contractor is just taking over from where they left,” said Mr Musoni.
Matabeleland North Governor Thokozile Mathuthu also confirmed the commencement of the project.
“I have not visited the site myself because of a tight schedule but I have received a report that work has started. I am very happy that the project is now being implemented after the setting up of a new board by the Government to oversee the project,” said Governor Mathuthu.
“As a province, we have been eagerly waiting for work on the project to start.
“The whole country is eager to see this project completed. Bulawayo is waiting and farmers are waiting to establish a green belt along the pipeline from the dam to Bulawayo. The completion of the project would also enhance the productive use of the land.”
Last month, the Minister of Water Resources Development and Management, Mr Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, unveiled an advisory council for the project and announced that the project would be completed in three years.
This follows the coming on board of the Chinese government, which would provide $1,2 billion needed to fund the project.
The NMZWP is expected to increase economic activity in Matabeleland region especially through the establishment of an agricultural green belt expected to positively change the economic face of the country.
The Government has secured funding to the tune of $864 million from the Chinese Exim Bank.
The Government allocated $8 million in the 2012 budget for the same project.
Minister Nkomo is on record saying the Chinese would this year allocate an additional $345 million in their budget to complete the project.
He said the money was a loan that constituted “cheap money” as it would be paid back over 25 years at an interest rate of about three percent.
Minister Nkomo said the project would be done in three phases with the Gwayi-Shangani Dam being the first priority.
The second phase would be the construction of a pipeline from the Gwayi-Shangani Dam to a reservoir in Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park suburb.
The third and final phase will be the construction of a 245km pipeline from the Zambezi River to the Gwayi-Shangani Dam.
Plans to draw water from the Zambezi were first mooted in 1912 but financial constraints have always hindered the implementation by successive governments.
Online Reporter