Source: All eyes on MZWP pipeline | The Standard

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU/PRAISEMORE SITHOLE

A tender for the construction of the pipeline was floated in April following a ground breaking ceremony by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Construction of the pipeline is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

Upon completion, Gwayi-Shangani will become the country’s third largest inland water body after Tokwe-Mukosi and Lake Mutirikwi with a holding capacity of 650million cubic metres.

Mnangagwa, officiating at the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the pipeline, in April said the Gwayi-Shangani pipeline will be undertaken by various local companies.

Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) spokesperson Marjorie Munyonga however told Sunday Southern Eye in an interview on Thursday that no company has been awarded the tender as yet.

“The tender process is still ongoing. We are yet to complete the process,” said Munyonga.

The project to pipe water from the mighty Zambezi River, 452km away to Bulawayo, was first mooted in 1912, but abandoned by successive governments due to the high costs involved.

There have been successive budget allocations from the Treasury towards the project, with timelines set for its conclusion, but the project remains in its initial stages of implementation.

Analysts have said the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project can only be guaranteed if the scheme is privatised or if the government releases coal and gas concessions to undertake the project.

There are case examples where private financing of projects has taken off in other African projects.

A natural resources company based in Australia, Volt Resources is developing the Bunyu graphite project in Tanzania, which is expected to be the largest graphite mine in the world that falls along the pipeline to enable identified investors to raise the monies to upon completion with an internal rate of return of up to 87%.