‘Govt interventions improving people’s lives’ VP Chiwenga

Mukudzei Chingwere recently in BULAWAYO

President Mnangagwa is walking the talk on development and Zimbabwe owes him gratitude for his structured interventions meant to improve peoples’ lives, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said when opening Sai Mart in Entumbane, Bulawayo, recently.

The President was elected to the country’s top job on the promise of fostering rapid economic growth that would lead to the attainment of an upper middle income economy by 2030. 

To this end, the President has primed the economy towards rapid improvement of people’s lives, with a number of economic development projects at different stages of implementation.

VP Chiwenga said the President must be commended for the path that he set the nation on. “I wish to commend our Government under the visionary leadership of President Mnangagwa for leading the ‘Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo’ philosophy, and making the vision of a prosperous and empowered upper middle income society by 2030 a reality,” he said.

“This is going to happen. We will build our county, and before we get to 2030, we will be an empowered upper middle income society.

“As you might be aware, here in the two Matabeleland provinces, the Gwayi-Shangani Dam you are seeing is almost getting to completion, and we shall build six stations which will make Matabeleland North a green belt with 10 000 hectares and water getting into the City of Kings and Queens.

“The same thing will be done for the Epping Forest water project which is coming in. That the Kalahari sands will not produce anything is a lie.” 

VP Chiwenga noted that the Gwayi-Shangani pipeline, as well as the commissioning of the Epping Forest boreholes in Nyamandlovu by President Mnangagwa last year, was meant to ease water shortages.

President Mnangagwa also launched the Bubi-Lupane Irrigation Scheme late last year, which was identified as a pilot project for an integrated business model to be replicated across all rural provinces as part of the National Food Security Strategy.

Treasury has also disbursed funds for the construction of Tuli-Manyange Dam in Gwanda District while the expansion of Hwange Thermal Station is ongoing, which will see an additional 600MW being generated.

VP Chiwenga said Hwange Thermal Power Station’s Unit 7 would be completed this year while Unit 8 would be completed next year, a move that will see Zimbabwe having reasonable quantities of electricity.

“We are also seating on top of a large resource of gas and oil. So we are not poor. Let’s get our minds right. Every part of this country has got something which will contribute to the growth of the economy of this country. All we need to do is to be united, to work together as the people of Zimbabwe,” said VP Chiwenga.

Bulawayo has been grappling with water shortages for many years largely due to the effects of climate change and declining water levels at its supply dams located near the city in Matabeleland South.

Epping Forest in Nyamandlovu is one of the key water projects undertaken by Government to address critical water challenges in Bulawayo, to use the large aquifer there as a short term adjunct to city supplies before the Gwai-Shangani water starts flowing down the pipeline as the permanent solution, and one that can be extended all the way to the Zambezi River in future decades as the city expands again.

Following the drilling and rehabilitation of 20 boreholes by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) at the Nyamandlovu Aquifer to augment water supply in Bulawayo, and then the other interventions including the pipeline from the north, the city is expected to regain its status as the country’s industrial hub.

Pumping water from Nyamandlovu aquifer boreholes eases Bulawayo’s water crisis as the city will have an additional 10 megalitres a day, and when a city is as dry as Bulawayo ever megalitre counts.

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