Mgcini Dlamini
ZIMBABWE National Water Authority (Zinwa) has come out gun blazing and defended the Gwayi-Shangani dam, declaring that lack of progress is due to the novel Corona virus.
In a statement signed by Marjorie Munyonga, corporate communications and marketing manager at Zinwa the parastatal tried to paint a good picture of the project.
This comes after journalists and Matabeleland Collective leaders toured the dam site last week and discovered that no progress was taking place.
In what appears as a response to damning stories written by the journalists, Zinwa says all is in order, and Covid-19 is the problem.
“Construction of the dam however slowed down this year principally on account of the COVID-19 induced lockdown and travel restrictions and is expected to go full
throttle once the contractor returns to the site,” reads the statement.
“Senior staff from the contractor, China Water and Electric Corp,and who are involved
in the project, travelled to China in December last year and have not been able to
return to the project due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions which most air travel
halted and borders closed.”
Zinwa in the attempt to paint the project a success further claimed that other work is underway.
“Regardless of this set back other work is underway at the construction site, which will see the smooth rejuvenation of the project once the relevant personnel from the contractor return to Zimbabwe,” said the parastatal.
Zinwa further revealed that the government has poured over ZWL$1 billion towards the dam project.
“Government has since March 2019, disbursed in excess of ZWL$1billion towards
the construction of Gwayi-Shanagani Dam in Matabeleland North Province,”said Zinwa.
The dam,set to be Zimbabwe’s third largest inland water body after Tugwi-Mukosi and Lake Mutirikwi, both in Masvingo Province is part of the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project and is touted as part of the long-term solution on the perennial water
challenges that the city of Bulawayo has grappled with in recent years.
The dam has a capacity of 650 million cubic meters of water with an envisaged pipeline that will convey water from the dam to Bulawayo.
But, only 11 percent of the dam wall has been constructed so far.
This translates to a meagre 8 metres out of the 72 metres set to be constructed.
The project has been divided into three phases due to financial constraints.
The first entails the construction of the dam wall and the second involves the setting of pipelines.
Lastly, a power plant with a 10 megawatts generation capacity will be constructed and it will feed into the national power grid.
