Zambezi project: Only permanent solution to Bulawayo water woes

BY SILAS NKALA

MORE than a century ago in 1912, people of Matabeleland were promised that they will draw water from the Zambezi River, through the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP).

Every year, they have been hoping that this massive project, which will draw water from Gwayi-Shangani Dam will materialise.

But it has proved to be just a hoax as Matabeleland and Bulawayo continue to suffer perennial water shortages. The project was mooted more than a hundred years ago during the colonial era.

It was later to be adopted by the Zanu government after independence in 1980.

Despite the hope that this water project was going to be the panacea to the Matabeleland and Bulawayo perennial water problems, the water situation in the region has further worsened and is exacerbated by an increase in population in the region.

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Bulawayo Water Action group secretary Khumbulani Maphosa, who is also the co-ordinator for the Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights, blamed the failure to complete the water project on what he termed as “hydro-politics”.

Maphosa said in 1912, the total cost of the project was estimated at 60 000 pounds only. It was expensive then.

“Twenty years later, then Rhodesian Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins said the country couldn’t afford the 60 000 pounds needed for the project.

“Similar cost justification was given in the 1950s by Prime Minister Edgar Whitehead when 60 000 pounds was then proposed cost for the project,” Maphosa said.

“Fast track it to now, we are told of progress being stalled due to lack of funding, or that the contractor has downed tools due to lack of funding,” he said.

Maphosa opines that the issue of funding is now being used as a scapegoat for failure to implement the project.

He said there was no excuse for failing to implement the MZWP because government had ensured that similar water projects like Tugwi-Mukosi were fully implemented and well-funded.

Maphosa said government was also showing seriousness in funding the construction of the new Parliament Building at a cost of US$140 million, which means that the issue is about priorities and the MZWP is not among top priority projects.

In his 2021 National Budget statement, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube allocated $4,5 billion towards the Gwayi-Shangani Dam for its completion.

But Maphosa said the money would be affected by inflation, as well as Treasury’s failure to disburse the financial allocations on time, and lack of transparency in terms of disclosure of the final cost of the project.

He said the water shortages in Matabeleland and Bulawayo were now a human rights issue.

“The government needs to be held accountable both locally and internationally because the realisation and fulfilment of the right to water (for potable and development use) is not only guaranteed in the Constitution of Zimbabwe but also in international laws which Zimbabwe is signatory to.

Bulawayo and Matabeleland (like the rest of Zimbabwe) have a water crisis because a serious leadership crisis is manifesting itself in water shortages.”

The human rights defender also decried the fact that people are made to pay for water from estimated bills, which he described as “robbing citizens of their hard-earned money”.

He said there was no reason why government should fail to ensure the completion of MZWP because one of Zimbabwe’s neighbours — Botswana completed a 450-kilometre Zambezi water pipeline four years ago, and was in the process of completing another 100-kilometre pipeline.

“Namibia, Egypt and Botswana are all located in desert areas but they are able to provide their citizens with water. That is a sign of good leadership. Ours is a leadership crisis because the Victoria Falls is on the Zambezi River, but the country suffers from water problems. It is a leadership problem,” he said.

Maphosa said the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) should be disbanded as it was a failed entity which was wasting the country’s resources.

“We also need to build the capacity of residents to force their elected officials to hold the executive to account over water issues. As long as residents are not holding the government accountable, there won’t be any progress. Right now we are told that $4,5 billion has been allocated for Gwayi-Shangani dam.

“We need our councillors and MPs to establish whether it is enough, how much will be disbursed and when, as well as the project completion timelines.”

He said civil society, elected representatives and citizens were to blame for failing to demand water rights.

“Civic society and the media as the fourth estate have failed to hold politicians and government accountable. As part of agenda setting, they need to galvanise the residents to non-violently demand that this project be prioritised and completed,” he said, adding that the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project was a national priority.

National Consumer Rights Association (Nacora) advisor Effie Ncube said the only reason why the MZWP had not been implemented was to ensure the Matabeleland region remained marginalised.

“They know that without water Matabeleland will forever remain poor and they want it that way. Remember water is not only essential for the day-to-day lives of the people but it is also a key driver of economic development. “There is no meaningful economic activity that can take place without adequate water supply. Very little resources have been channelled towards the start and completion of the project. It is all talk, yet there is no budgetary action.

“The little that has been directed to the project is only enough for a few boreholes, not a project of the size and complexity that the Zambezi Water Project is,” Ncube said.

He said the water problems in Matabeleland and Bulawayo would result in food insecurity, lack of jobs and poverty, and diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

Ncube said dealing with pandemics like COVID-19 would be impossible without water.

“Zanu PF doesn’t care and will never care. Therefore, if people want to see the Zambezi Water Project coming to fruition they must vote Zanu PF out of power,” he said.

Ncube said the water pipes were also too old, and needed refurbishment, adding that this requires political will.

“We need to put aside tens or hundreds of millions of US dollars every financial year, and to ensure we have the right people winning the tenders, not the usual political crooks that are milking the country dry.”

The consumer rights activist said at its completion, the Zambezi Water Project should have canals and pipelines connecting Binga and even Beitbridge.

Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs minister Richard Moyo, who is also the Zanu PF provincial chairman, dismissed the claims that government was to blame for the project delays.

He claimed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s new dispensation constructed the Gwayi-Shangani Dam to 40% completion a few years after coming into power.

“Remember that the Zambezi Water Project was started over one hundred years ago, but also take note that the first brick of the project was laid by the new dispensation. Maybe the old dispensation can be blamed for the delay. We expect the project to be complete by end of this year,” Moyo said.

He said the project had been stalled by the COVID-19 lockdown regulations which forced the contractor to cease operations and go back to China.

“If not for the lockdown, they would have completed it by now.”

Moyo said government released US$58 million, $200 million and $600 million towards the construction of the project, bringing the whole funding to $800 million and US$58 million.

But Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust (MZWT) chairman Richard Ndlovu said the delays in the completion of the project were due to shortage of funds.

The political leadership has realised the importance of the project to the region and the country at large in terms of the economy,” Moyo said.

“The delays might have been due to politics in the past, but now it’s beyond that. The new dispensation is committed to complete the project. Mnangagwa is a listening president. In two years time I see this project being completed,” Moyo said

In 2018, MZWT chief executive Sarah Ndhlovu revealed that US$2 billion was needed to complete the phase linking Bulawayo to the Zambezi, including the Gwayi-Shangani Dam.

The government involved MZWT in the adjudication process of appointing the contractor, China International Water and Electric (CWE), which Ndhlovu said had been on site since the inception of the project.

She said Zinwa was provided engineers, adding that the Gwayi-Shangani Dam was 30% complete.

Ndhlovu said at that time, expenditure for the project was estimated at US$10 million and it had been allocated US$23 million in the 2018 national budget.

The multi-million-dollar project is earmarked to end Bulawayo’s perennial water problems and to create a green belt in the drought-prone Matabeleland region through irrigation agriculture along the pipeline linking the dam and Bulawayo.

In March 2018, Mnangagwa pledged to do everything in his ability to ensure the Gwayi-Shangani Dam project was complete by 2019.

However, his promise never materialised.

Now it is being said that an estimated US$53 million is required to complete the Gwayi Shangani Dam project.

Last year, Bulawayo mayor Solomon Mguni said the water crisis in Bulawayo reflected the realities of a drought, adding that there should be no blame game.

He said council wrote to government asking that Bulawayo be declared a critical water shortage zone.

“This would inform our domestic and international appeal for funding in our water augmentation drive. We all await the said declaration,” Mguni said.

Development analyst Mandla Khanye said the water crisis in Matabeleland needed people across ethnic boundaries to commit themselves to ensure the project is completed.

“In the past Bulawayo has been the industrial and commercial nerve centre of the country. But that has been taken away from it. To restore that, Bulawayo needs to capture and establish a leadership with courage and commitment, so as to create conducive conditions for growth and expansion. An area crying out for attention is the development of a reliable water source for the city,” Khanye said.

He said foreign direct investment could not be possible without water.

Khanye said MZWP had the potential to change the economic dynamics in Zimbabwe by boosting the national economy.