Bulawayo City Council has raised over US$21 million out of the required US$100 million for the construction of the Glassblock Bopoma Dam in Matabeleland South province’s Insiza district.
The construction of the dam is expected to ease perennial water challenges in Bulawayo and usher in rural industrialisation through irrigation.
The revelations were made during a boardroom meeting at the just-ended three-day 2024 Africa Investment Forum (AIF) Market Days that was held in Rabat, Morocco, last week.
The event was hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The project's adviser, Genesis Global Finance (Pty) Limited (Genesis), tabled a financing request to a transaction-focused platform led by AfDB.
The other seven founding partners of the platform and the forum include the African Export–Import Bank, Africa50, Africa Finance Corporation, Development Bank of Southern Africa, European Investment Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and Trade and Development Bank.
The financing request is for US$54 million in debt financing, US$4,8 million in equity and US$10 million by way of grant financing to complement the US$21 million raised locally.
Additionally, the project requires US$16,8 million in equity, with the balance expected from domestic pension funds.
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Government awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction contract to construction firm J R Goddard Contracting.
The water-uptake agreement is expected to be signed in the coming weeks.
“The concession agreement will be finalised and executed in the month of January 2025, which is the next month so that the project is ready for commencement," Genesis managing director Felix Kumirai said during the meeting.
"The financial close is expected to be in March, by the end of March 2025, and this is when most of the work will commence with the construction of the dam, and the pipeline is expected to end by December of 2026, commissioning in May 2027."
The project is running under a build, operate and transfer model for 25 years, and will have its concession issued by the government.
While the goal of this project is for water and sanitation provision, Kumirai said there were several other sub-opportunities around this, including irrigation.
“We believe that 1 800 hectares of land will be irrigated upstream of Glasblock Dam.
“This will change the lives of many members of the community," he said.
"There is a power generation and solar energy project, 6,4 megawatts, not major but able to drive a number of small towns that require this additional energy.
“There are opportunities around fisheries and tourism and biodiversity financing, where we believe that those who are interested in bio-credits would have an opportunity to support the main project."
The dam is expected to have a holding capacity of 130 million cubic metres and is strategically located at the intersection of Gwanda, Umzingwane and Insiza districts.
Bulawayo is in the midst of its worst water crisis following the decommissioning of Umzingwane and upper Ncema dams.
Council has warned that lower Ncema may also be decommissioned in a month if the dam does not receive significant inflows.
