Water, Sewage & Effluent July August 2018 | Page 6

The just-completed Tugwi-Mukosi Dam, now Zimbabwe’s biggest internal lake.
A t t h e r e c e n t l y e n d e d Wa t e r
Resources Infrastructure Investment
Conference by the Environment,
Water and Climate; Lands, Agriculture
and Rural Resettlement; Finance
and Economic Planning and Local
Government, Public Works and
National Housing ministries in
Zimbabwe, it was revealed that
the country requires about USD8-
billion to construct 37 major water
infrastructure facilities, including
dams and water purification
structures.
This is to meet the increasing
demands of its growing urban
population. Apart from household
consumption, the facilities will feed into
electricity generation and irrigation.
At the conference, around 60
investors were impressed by how
Zimbabwe has opened up for business
and committed to take up the water
infrastructure projects before year end.
The completion of these water
infrastructure projects will bring water
storage capacity to over 70 billion
cubic metres and will aid the country in
boosting its agricultural yields.
Projects showcased during the
conference were given National
Project Status.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
governor, Dr John Mangudya, said to
reduce drought-induced effects and
increase production in the agriculture
sector, there is need to support water
infrastructure development.
“Drought-induced effects
have significant implications on
maintenance of price and financial
stability in the economy and hence
the central bank’s interest in financing
water infrastructure development.
USD8bn injection into Zim water infra
“Despite the shortages of foreign
currency, the RBZ has been able to
make foreign exchange allocations for
the construction of Tugwi-Mukosi Dam,
Gwai Shangani Dam, Beitbridge Water
System, Causeway Dam, and Kunzvi
Dam,” he added.
To ensure national food security,
the Zimbabwe government is putting
350 000 hectares of arable land
under irrigation. The state is also
encouraging beneficiation and export
of surplus produce.
“Investment in water infrastructure
will hasten the modernisation of our
agriculture and complement our
renewed mechanisation drive; and
facilitate the development of our
aquaculture under Command Fisheries,
livestock and general cropping
programmes as we seek to increase
productivity,” said the governor.
He said sufficient water supply
would allow the country to establish
greenbelts and agriculture-based
special economic zones.
Over 500MW will be generated from
the massive water infrastructure.
The country is currently producing
an average of 1 200MW daily. However,
in winter, Zimbabwe needs around
1 600MW of electricity daily, with
South African imports from Eskom
augmenting the deficit.
World Bank arm, the International
Finance Corporation (IFC), has
expressed keen interest in investing
multimillion dollars in Zimbabwe’s off-
grid energy projects to improve power
supplies in the country and lessen the
burden on main power supplies. u
Effluent dump plan shelved
A plan by New Zealand organisation
Environment Southland (ES) to build
an effluent dump in the Gore area has
been shelved.
In June 2017, ES transportation
senior policy planner Russell Hawkes
said a site had