The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
THE Matabeleland Collective is optimistic that construction of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam will be finished in December this year.
The Government, last month, handed control of the project to the Matabeleland Collective and its technical partner, the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust the mandate to push for the construction of the pipeline from Zambezi to Bulawayo. That development followed a groundbreaking meeting in March between President Mnangagwa and the collective, a civil society grouping that houses under its umbrella faith-based organisations, community-based organisations, trusts, savings clubs and social movements from Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South.
The construction of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam is seen as a long term solution to Bulawayo’s water woes, while it is a vital cog in the realisation of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP). In an interview, Matabeleland Collective spokesperson Mr Dumisani Nkomo said they received an explicit commitment from the Government that construction would be done before the end of the year. He said that while naysayers might have thought that dialogue between the President and the civil society organisations was fruitless, they were going to see the tangible results.
“So all these issues have time frames because people were saying, you just spoke and it was oral and nothing was written down but this time we got a written commitment from Government to which we can hold them to account. For us that was a very big victory. People can say we sold out or whatever.
“One of the commitments that we got was that Gwayi-Shangani Dam has to be finished by December this year. So funds have to be allocated for the completion of the dam by December. I think that’s a measurable standard by which we can hold Government to account,” he said. Mr Nkomo said the Government also agreed to caucus on the project every month.
“Funds must be committed to the Matabeleland Water Project as a matter of urgency and the Government said they would have monthly reports at Cabinet level to look at that particular issue,” he said.
Mr Nkomo said that although Government was taking the lead, Matabeleland Collective has also devised its own capital generating schemes, as they did not want to approach donors with a begging bowl. He added that there was also keen interest in the project from Botswana and Namibia, two Southern African countries, likely to face acute water shortages in future.
“When the Trust, not the collective, was pushing, it wanted a concession for methane gas in Lupane so that it could self fund the project and not rely on donors. That project can be funded and there’s external interest in it. There’re people that have been calling about the project for example Namibia and Botswana.
“This is because there’s likely to be a water crisis in Botswana in about 15-20 years. So there’s also regional interest. So it must be packaged as something that is a win-win for the country, a win-win for the GDP, a win-win for Matabeleland and a win-win for Southern Africa,” he said.
Mr Nkomo said the country stands to reap great benefits from the completion of the project.
“You try to market the concept of public-private partnerships . . . how does private capital come in to help us fund the project? Can concessions be then given on the public side? The region will never be the same again. There’re organisations that have expressed interest in energy friendly power generation upstream of the Zambezi but I think there are negotiations that are still ongoing. As a collective, we don’t own the project but it’s a member of our organisation which is pushing for that,” he said.
