Why Zambezi Water Project will never be achieved

The ambitious Zambezi Water Project to pipe water from the mighty Zambezi River 452km away to Bulawayo might remain a pipe dream a  Bulawayo based academic Innocent Batsani Ncube has revealed.

Said Ncube, "A long time ago, together with Harry Kapenya, I was invited by Dumisani O Nyongolo Nkomo to an event/ seminar he had organised where his organisation had brought a water engineering expert to among other things, explain the feasibility of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Pipeline.

"Three takeaways that I took from this amazing expert (he had the gift of simplifying complex water engineering concepts):

1. The pipeline is a 'pipe dream' because of topography issues.
2. Bulawayo gets its water from Matabeleland South water bodies because of this very fact.
3. Out of the box' engineering ingenuity can succeed in bringing water, but the consequence will be super expensive and unaffordable water."

The project was first mooted in 1912, but abandoned by successive governments due to the high costs involved.

The project was being run by Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust but the government took over the MZWP from the Dumiso Dabengwa-led MZWT in 2012 in line with a Cabinet decision made in 2004.

It was alleged that MWZT was abusing the funds channelled by the government to the Trust.