Zimbabwe to get $145 million for power, water projects

2019-3-4 Patrick Haddad

 Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with African Development Bank (AfDB) officials in Bulawayo yesterday, ZimFund manager Emmanuel Nzabanita said the objective of the fund was to improve the provision of water, sanitation and energy in the country.

“Our contributing donors include Australia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom,” he said.

AFDB is the administrator for ZimFund.

Nzabanita said the fund was bankrolling two projects, namely Urgent Water Supply (UWS) and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project (EPIRP).

“The objective of EPIRP is to assist Zimbabwe to improve the availability and reliability of electricity supply through rehabilitation of generation, transmission and distribution facilities,” he said.

African Development Bank country manager Damoni Kitabire said at Marvel substation in Bulawayo, three 60 MVA transformers were installed more than 50 years ago and one of the transformers failed in 2009; in Gweru, the Chertsey substation was decommissioned 14 years ago.

According to Nzabanita, ZimFund is financing the replacement of a 90MVA transformer at Chertsey substation and a 175 MVA transformer at Marvel substation in Bulawayo, to supply approximately 300 000 households in the City of Kings and other surrounding provinces.

“The substation [Chertsey] supplies power to a number of institutions such as hospitals, clinics, colleges, universities and schools,” he said.