adminVictoria Falls Reporter
THE $2,5 million access road linking Bulawayo-Victoria highway to the point where the proposed 1 600MW Batoka Gorge will be developed along the Zambezi River, has been completed. Addressing Zimbabwean and Zambian journalists at Batoka Gorge during a media tour of the project on Tuesday, Zambezi River Authority public relations and communications manager Ms Elizabeth Karonga, said the completion of the construction of the access road was a confirmation of the seriousness of the Zimbabwean and Zambian governments to see the project through.
“The access road has been completed on the Zimbabwean side. On the Zambian side we are left with about two kilometres and that will be completed soon,” she said.
Ms Karonga said she was happy to note that villagers were no longer going to be relocated as was previously planned.
“What they now have is an access road and it is going to trigger development in the area since the area is now accessible. At the same time there will not be any relocation of villagers as the road has been done without disturbing the status quo. We are also working with the parks in case there will be need to relocate wild animals but indications are that we will not need any form of rescue,” said Ms Karonga.
She said now that the access road had been completed, what remained was the evaluation of bids for the update of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
“There are about six bids we are looking at and so the evaluation is in progress. There is funding from the World Bank for that process and we expect that to be done by next year,” said Ms Karonga.
The last EIA was done in 1993.
ZRA Hydrology technician Mr Samuel Mwale said the dam would be 181 metres in height and 50 km long.
He said the project would be built on a Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT).
“Zimbabwe and Zambia will both be producing 800MW each and we hope that will alleviate power shortages we are facing,” said Mr Mwale.
Online Reporter