Kunzvi construction to start April: Nkomo
by Own Correspondent Saturday 22 January 2011
HARARE – Construction of Kunzvi Dam which will augment Harare’s water supply
is due to start in April while the government has allocated the initial $4
million to kick-start a long-delayed multi-million-dollar project to pipe
water to the second largest city of Bulawayo, a cabinet minister has said.
Water Resources Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo said construction of the dam
would take between 18 and 24 months.
“It has been on the cards for too long and we are starting to build the dam
in April,” he told the latest edition of The Prime Minister’s Newsletter.
The construction project is a partnership between the government and local
and foreign private companies.
“We are in partnership with a local company and two other companies from
Nigeria and France,” he said without naming the partners.
The government has contributed $2 million towards the project, he said.
Construction of Kunzvi Dam on Nyaguwe River in Mashonaland East province was
approved by cabinet in 1996 to ease shortages of water in the capital.
The dam was supposed to be commissioned in 2002.
Lack of funds has stalled implementation of this and other water projects
such as the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project, an ambitious
project to draw water from the Zambezi River to supply Zimbabwe’s perennial
dry second city of Bulawayo.
A long held plan to tap water from the Zambezi River through the
construction of a 450km pipeline to arid Matabeleland, the project was
mooted way back in 1912.
The total cost of the pipeline has sky-rocketed and the project is now
estimated to cost more than $600 million.
However, the crisis-ridden government has been unable to implement the
scheme, drawing the ire of Bulawayo residents and other pressure groups from
the region.