4 December 2021
Shamila Mdlongwa
The President, Emmerson Dambuzo Mnangagwa yesterday said the water crisis be delving the City of Bulawayo was of paramount importance and would end by December next year.
ED was speaking after his monthly CleanUp Campaign this time held in bulawayo at Babourfields Stadium yesterday. He touched on a couple of problems Bulawayo is currently facing.
The Gwayi-Shangani dam project which was launched some years ago is set to end Bulawayo’s water crisis by December 2022.
The Dam which has a holding capacity of 650 million cubic meters of water is a confluence of Gwayi and Shangani rivers located in the Matebeleland region.
Over the past months companies contracted to construct the dam have been making noticeable progress regardless of the challenges they have faced particularly that of limited supply of cement and Covid-19 enduced breaks, the dam will start receiving water this season when the rains begin.
However, Bulawayo residents will only start drawing the water next year since the project is being done in phases.
The six companies contracted by the government have been tasked to lay down 245km pipes from Gwayi-Shangani to Bulawayo so that by next year Bulawayo will start drawing the purified water for consumption.
Last week, November 25 the Minster of Finance and Economic Development, Prof. Mthuli Ncube during the 2022 National Budget presentation allocated $3,6billion towards the project to be completed next year 2022.
The project is one of the National Matebeleland Zambezi Water Project (NMZWP) which began decades ago but failed to take off to political meddling and lack of interest by the government of the then president Robert Mugabe.
The current government led by ED Mnangagwa has promised to lay down the pipeline but BBC many hope it will not be a “pipe dream” but a water channel for Bulawayo residents.
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