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Elita Chikwati Senior Agriculture Reporter
President Mnangagwa is set to officially open the Water Resources Infrastructure Investment Conference, which is meant to mobilise funding for the development of 50 water infrastructure projects countrywide. The conference will be held next Monday and Tuesday.

Projects that require funding include dams, conveyance systems for potable water, irrigation systems and mini-hydropower stations on water bodies in various parts of the country.

President Mnangagwa is also expected to launch the National Climate Policy that provides for broader framework of the country’s responses to climate change.
The ministry will showcase projects that require funding.

In statement yesterday, Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said Government was looking at financing options such as Build Operate and Transfer (BOT), Build Own and Transfer (BOOT), joint ventures and public-private partnerships (PPPs).

“Our options are not exclusive to these, but we remain open to consider any other financing options that can help the country and investors to both benefit,” she said.

“The conference will re-affirm the President’s call that Zimbabwe is open for business and is ready to embrace investments in the different sectors of the economy.

“The conference will showcase to private sector investors the abundant opportunities that are in Zimbabwe’s water sector. Previously, Government has been the major financier of water infrastructure projects, a position that has been overtaken by the new policy thrust of promoting the PPPs.

“Such a policy allows Government fiscal space and latitude to focus on other infrastructure projects in the social and economic sectors. The conference will also assist Government and investors explore innovative ways of financing developments in the water resources infrastructure sector.”

Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri said Government was convinced that a sound water resources infrastructure had a positive multiplier effect on all economic enablers such as energy, health, agriculture and tourism.

“Government is cognisant of the nexus between availability and the upholding of human dignity, poverty eradication, gender equality, hunger eradication, good health, climate change and sustainable communities,” she said.

“There is, therefore, an imperative need for Government to urgently leverage the existing potential of the country’s water resources for the realisation of the people’s social and economic prosperity.”

Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri expressed concern that under the previous political dispensation and the ensuing economic stagnation, it was exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for Government to leverage financial resources for infrastructure. This culminated in gross incapacity to meet the people’s needs.

She said Zimbabwe had not been spared the ravages of climate change and there was need to address mitigation and adaptation measures to guarantee sustainable livelihoods for affected communities.

The minister noted with concern the surge in the size of urban populations, which she said was putting pressure on both raw and clear water supply infrastructure.

This has resulted in water shortages and the outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.