estimated to have cost close to half a billion dollars risks being a white
elephant with the government failing to come up with its master plan three
years after completion.
formerly Tokwe-Mukosi, became the largest inland dam in the country with the
capacity to irrigate about 30 000 hectares of land and generate over 15 Mega
Watts of hydroelectricity.
President Robert Mugabe officially commissioned the dam on May 18, 2017 and
promised Masvingo province that it would benefit enormously on agriculture and
other business ventures but to date, nothing has materialized.
former president promised that the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam master plan would be
expedited but he was removed one year later by his long term allies before
delivering on that promise.
is two years now under the President Emmerson Mnangagwa-led ‘new dispensation’
and Masvingo province still awaits for the master plan.
master plan will designate land use patterns in and around Tugwi-Mukosi dam.
of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Ezra Chadzamira says that the master
plan will be unveiled within the first quarter of 2020 as the government has cleared
the US$200 000 debt owed to the South African consultant to complete the master
plan.
on the master plan had been affected by delays in the payment of about US$200
000 to the consultant to complete the work.
are very excited that the Tugwi-Mukosi master plan will soon be out after the
consultant doing the job was paid,” said Chadzamira.
said if all things go as per the plan, the Tugwi-Mukosi master plan will be out
in March and the dam will be fully utilised.
the end of the first quarter around March, the master plan will be out and we
hope everything will move according to plan.
cry has been over failure to fully utilise Tugwi-Mukosi Dam despite its huge
potential to change lives of our people, but now we are on track.
are very grateful to President Mnangagwa and his government for making sure
work on the master plan is completed,” said Chadzamira.
province still suffers from the effects of drought despite housing the two
biggest inland dams in the country, Lake Mutirikwi and Tugwi-Mukosi.
Tugwi-Mukosi dam was mooted in the 1960s by the Rhodesian government but the
contract commenced in April 1998 with a planned construction period of four
years stretching from 1998 to 2002.
However, works were suspended in 1999 due to shortage of funds. The project
then went through start-stop phases from 2001 to 2005.
Construction then commenced in May 2011 with plans to complete the project
in November 2013 and plans to start impounding water in November 2013.
Due to funding constraints, the project went through some delays but the
government cleared all outstanding arrears to the contractor by October 2016.
TellZim News established that the government has not been honest with the
people as to the initial cost of the project.
It has been established that the project could have not been realized had it
not been for Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe which paid for the last phase of the
project.
