By Alois Vinga
THE 2025 target set for the completion of the Gwayi-Shangani Construction Project is now in doubt, with the Treasury still to release funds for the work, which has to be finished in the next eight months.
The Gwayi-Shangani project is seen as a lasting solution to Bulawayo’s water crisis, but it is behind schedule and has missed deadlines since construction began in 2004.
In 2018, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, during a tour of the Gwayi-Shangani dam, pledged to do everything in his ability to ensure the project is completed by the end of 2019.
In 2019, the dam missed the deadline due to delays and budget constraints, and it was pushed to 2022.
After missing the 2022 deadline, the completion date was further pushed to the end of 2023.
The government shifted the dam’s deadline multiple times, with the most recent target set for completion by the 2023/2024 summer cropping season.
Responding to a question raised by the Hwange East legislator, Hon Joseph Bonda, who demanded to know whether the Dam would be completed this year as scheduled, Lands Deputy Minister, Vangelis Haritatos, hinted that the unavailability of funds could choke the smooth delivery of the project.
“What needs to be done is that the release of funds has to be done on time. If the releases are not done on time, unfortunately, it is outside of our purview. It is not what we can do. We can make promises. We want to keep to the timeline. If the money comes, we will do our best.
“The contractors are on site. They have every intention, every incentive for them to complete the work. They want to continue and move on. This is a dam that is so fundamental. I have personally visited it more than 20 times and I know the impact it has on the community,” he said.
He said the project is of paramount importance for the communities, not only of the Matabeleland provinces but also of Bulawayo, where 276 kilometres of reticulation will finally end the water woes of the southern region.
“The other impediment with regard to this specific dam is that if we are only given, for example, two million dollars, this means no changes at the Gwayi-Shangani Dam. We require four million US dollars for the dam to be raised another two metres. Every two metres costs four million US dollars. If you are given three million nine hundred thousand, it still cannot be raised until we get the full four million. Not part of it because of the type of dam that we are building. The releases cannot be in drips and drops. They have to be in multipliers of four million and above,” said Haritatos.
He implored stakeholders to encourage the Treasury to prioritise the completion of the dam.
