The Sunday News
Project Background
The existing water supply dams for Bulawayo are in the Mzingwane catchment to the south of the city. The water resources in this catchment are exhausted and yield from existing dams is no longer adequate to meet the city’s water demand.
To the north of the city is the Gwayi catchment and the nearest viable dam site in the catchment is the Gwayi-Shangani Dam, 260km away. It is envisaged that water will be conveyed from the dam by a pipeline with a series of booster pump stations along. It is also envisaged that eventually the dam yield will be augmented by water pumped from the Zambezi River. This scheme is known as the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (NMZWP).
The National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (NMZWP) is divided into three phases as follows.
Phase I: Construction of Gwayi-Shangani Dam
Phase II: Construction of a pipeline from Gwayi-Shangani Dam to Bulawayo
Phase III: Construction of a pipeline from Zambezi River to link with the Gwayi-Shangani pipeline at Kennedy
Siding along the Bulawayo-Vic Falls railway line.
In addition to Bulawayo city the NMZWP will supply water for irrigation and other uses along the pipeline.
Construction of Gwayi-Shangani Dam is in progress. To date, overall progress is estimated at 39% complete. The dam wall is now eight metres high out of the total height of 72 metres.
Progress has been negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Phase II of the NMZWP was allocated ZWL$535 000 000 in the 2021 National Budget for “Detailed designs, procurement of contractor and commencement of works”. The Zimbabwe National Water Authority, as the engineer of the project is currently seized with design and procurement works.
Historical background of project implementation
The Contractor, China International Water and Electric Corporation (Pvt) Ltd was initially awarded the Contract to construct Gwayi-Shangani Dam in 2003 by the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust. The contractor carried out some works between 2003 and 2007 before suspending works between 2007 and 2012 due to cashflow challenges.
The Government took over as the employer in 2012 following due diligence exercise by the employer; negotiation of rates for the bill of quantities between the contractor, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) as the engineer and the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ); and ratification of the process by the State Procurement Board.
Pursuant to the State Procurement Board resolution No. PBR 2091 of November 22, 2012 granting the Employer’s request to proceed with the Construction of Gwayi-Shangani Dam by the contractor as a Concrete Gravity Arch Dam in line with the Water Act of 1998 (Chapter 20:24) for a contract price in the sum of US$121 732 922,60.
The contract in force currently was signed on 21 December 2012 and the contractor moved to site on 09 January 2013. The contractor suspended works again on 11 May 2015 due to cash flow challenges after several interim payment certificates were not paid beyond the period allowable by the contract.
The contractor resumed works on 23 June 2017 and the project is currently active.-Source: Zinwa
