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Heather Charema in Chegutu
A London-based organisation, Kavland International, has expressed interest in injecting US$50 million towards the rehabilitation of Chegutu’s water and sewage infrastructure through a public private partnership to prevent a recurrence of cholera outbreaks.

The organisation also showed interest in humanitarian projects including road construction for the rural district council.

This comes after Zimbabwe attended the African-Caribbean Pacific-European Union joint parliament which was held in Brussels, Belgium, early last year where the European Commission and the European Development Fund experts vowed to assist in fighting water borne-diseases through a 10 million euro grant.

Chegutu Municipality has so far replaced five pumps at Police and Chakari tower stations to improve the pumping capacity which is not enough since the town is still facing water leakages due to dilapidated water pipes with some suburbs relying solely on boreholes.

In his presentation to the council management during an investment meeting last week, Kavland International chief executive Mr Nigel Brown said they were willing to provide more funds and to invest in other humanitarian sectors in Chegutu.

“We would like to express interest in providing our company’s services for your requirement to undertake projects which would be identified as humanitarian as accepted by the World Bank.

“We are able to undertake these projects as the general contractor and group project management company in charge of surveying, design, construction and financing,” he said.

Mr Brown said his organisation would use a private placement programme to raise the project funding.

“In order to raise the required finance and loan repayment, the following business model would be used based on the use of in ground assets to act as the base to start the financial process of raising the capital required for each project, and the future income streams to service the loan repayments.

“The value of the in ground asset would have to be of sufficient value to match the number of years the income stream that will be used to repay the loan.

“Also the future income from the project will also be applied to service the loan repayment. The repayment period would be a matter of negotiation between the Government and the general contractor. However, we are able to say upfront that we would not expect repayments to start until the project was in operation and profits were being generated. Until that point is reached a moratorium on payments would be agreed. The interest on the loan would be in the region of 1 percent to 3 percent depending on the terms of the contract and the length of the term required for repayment,” he said.

A Zimbabwean representative and partner of Kavland International, Ms Winetty Kunonga of MGIT and Company, said they had realised that Chegutu needed assistance.

“We have done our assessment and have realised that Chegutu needs assistance in the rehabilitation of new and existing water and sewer infrastructure. We came up with a rough figure of US$50 million which we believe will be able to finish the entire project,” she said

Engineering department director Eng Ambrose Nyarumbwa said the local authority had a master plan for putting an end to the problems but lacked financing.

“We have already carried out a study of the entire town, and we have come up with a master plan which includes the short-term and long-term plan in ending the water problems in Chegutu. What has been missing is financing,” he said. Updated

Meanwhile, Chegutu Municipality is seeking investors to refurbish Pfupajena Stadium into a state-of-the-art arena in exchange for land, reports Blessings Chidakwa.

The offer has been extended to any reputable firm capable of doing the renovations or solely providing funding.

Pfupajena Stadium used to be the pride of the farming and mining town, hosting Premier League matches but has deteriorated over the past years.

Once restored to its former glory, the stadium is expected to boost the municipality’s revenue inflows through gate takings during matches and also ground hire.

In a statement, Chegutu Town Clerk Mr Alex Mandigo said all reputable companies that were interested in the deal should contact council before July 2 this year.

“Chegutu Municipality is inviting eligible, experienced and professional companies who are interested in the upgrading and rehabilitation works of Pfupajena Stadium and ancillary facilities in exchange for a commercial, industrial, residential or institutional piece of land.

“Council is therefore, seeking a partner who will wholly fund the proposed project works in exchange for either a commercial, industrial, residential or institutional piece of land which may be preferred by the investor,” he  said.

The renovation of Pfupajena stadium is among one of council’s 2019 top priorities outlined in the town’s budget.

The other huge projects being carried out in the town include among others, replacing of outdated sewer lines in phases, as part of measures to curb perennial sewerage bursts that were blamed for intermittent water-borne disease outbreaks.

The local authority, which pumps an average of eight mega-litres a day, is also targeting to boost output by about 30 percent through the installation of three new booster pumps at the water treatment plant.