BULAWAYO residents and various stakeholders have urged Finance minister Mthuli Ncube to prioritise the allocation of funds aimed at addressing Matabeleland’s critical water challenges when he presents his 2025 national budget later this month.
They complained that a number of planned water infrastructure projects have failed to take off, stalled or are moving at a slow pace due to funding challenges.
For years, various water initiatives, including the long-awaited Gwayi-Shangani Dam, which is seen as the ultimate solution to Bulawayo’s water woes have been delayed due to insufficient funding.
With the dire water shortage facing Bulawayo and the broader Matabeleland region, stakeholders urged Ncube to ensure these projects move from the drawing board to implementation.
Bulawayo has been grappling with a severe water crisis for years, worsened by persistent droughts and the failure to secure sufficient water sources.
The city’s reliance on aging water infrastructure has strained its ability to meet the demands of its growing population.
“What is needed is to push our treasury to make disbursements for the Gwayi- Shangani dam to make disbursements even for the newly minted Bopoma dam so that Bulawayo will have water and the greater Matabeleland," said Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Member of Parliament for Emakhandeni Luveve Constituency, Discent Collins Bajila.
“We are paralysed because we are at a stage where everything is about planning, adopted plans are agreed upon, but no cent is disbursed towards that.”
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Bajila said focusing on Matabeleland’s water will help drive economic development in the region,
“An increased attention to Matabeleland water issues help us in terms of realising people’s right to water, and also in-terms of an economic potential in the agricultural sector given that Matabeleland relies on animal rearing," he said.
Bulawayo-based social commentator, Effie Ncube, also said without water, the region will miss out on economic opportunities.
“We urgently need large surface water reservoirs for irrigation and livestock rearing throughout Matabeleland," Ncube said.
“Adequate and reliable water supply means all-year-round farming, increasing the number of households with secure food supplies and making it profitable for people to conduct commercial agriculture critical for economic development.”
He said the water crisis impacted on the lives of women and the girl child.
“This exposes them to sexual violation and takes away quality time from education, exacerbating the vicious cycle of poverty and exploitation and making it difficult for the country to meet its commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” Ncube said.
Ibhetshu LikaZulu secretary-general Mbuso Fuzwayo said the budget must be biased towards Matabeleland.
“As long as we are not investing in the water crisis in Matabeleland then it means we are not assisting in improving or capacitating the industries in Bulawayo, which has always been the industrial hub of the nation,” Fuzwayo said.
Bulawayo United Residents Association chairperson, Winos Dube, said there has never been any political will to address the city’s water challenges.
“One very most unfortunate scenario in this whole process, budgets are given at national level year in year out,” Dube said,
Ward 5 councillor, Dumisani Nkomo said the government must show seriousness by declaring the city a water crisis area.
“Water is a priority in Matabeleland and we need to work with all stakeholders including but not limited to government, the private sector, international development partners and civil society to ensure there is adequate funding for water,” Nkomo said,
“The City of Bulawayo has a very detailed, costed and well researched short, medium and long term strategy to address the water problem.”
Proposed short term interventions include the resuscitation of boreholes with assistance of NGOs, optimising the capacity of Epping Forest /Nyamandlovu Aquifer as well as increasing the number of water kiosks and infrastructural development at Criterion reservoir to increase its capacity.
For medium terms, council has said there is need to complete the Bopoma Dam through a private public partnership, duplication of Mtshabezi and Insiza pipeline while the long term plan is the Gwayi Shangani Dam project.
“All these have been prioritized in council budget processes but as you are aware the responsibility of the city is distribution, purification and billing but actual bulk water provision is the responsibility of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority,” Nkomo said.”
Africa Carbon Markets Forum CEO, Anglistone Sibanda said the water crisis is not just a budget issue.
“We call upon the Minister of Finance to direct funds raised through carbon tax, whose objective is to mitigate the impact of carbon emissions towards funding mitigation projects to ameliorate the water Crisis in Bulawayo and an inclusive multi stakeholder approach to the national water crisis manifesting in Bulawayo,” Sibanda said.
Human rights activist, Khumbulani Maphosa, said Zimbabwe faced a water governance and leadership crisis.
“The presidency has a constitutional duty to account to the citizens and the citizens have a constitutional duty and obligation to hold the presidency accountable,” Maphosa said..
National University of Science and Technology journalism lecturer, Methuseli Moyo, said Matabeleland will be subdued economically without water.
“We need water to go fully commercial on the 250km envisaged green belt from the dam to Bulawayo, and beyond,” Moyo said.
“Industries also need water. The dam will boost tourism.
“All these will create employment, which in turn creates a viable market.”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa initially promised to ensure the completion of the Gway-Shangani dam ahead of the August 2023 elections.
The deadline was moved to December this year, and later to 2026.
