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Business Reporter
Zimbabwe and Zambia’s co-operating partners have affirmed their commitment to mobilise in excess of $280 million for the rehabilitation of the Kariba Dam wall.  The partners and representatives of the governments of Zimbabwe and Zambia who have been meeting over the last three weeks said the meetings were fruitful and key to ensuring adequate funding for the project.

Kariba Dam wall requires rehabilitation for its continued safe operation, as it would affect power output of the two countries if not undertaken.

Co-operating partners namely European Union, World Bank, African Development Bank and Sweden responded to a request from Zambia and Zimbabwe governments to assist with the rehabilitation of the project.

The EU intends to mobilise $100 million while the WB and AfDB propose to finance $75 million each while Sweden is considering chipping in with $30 million.

Speaking after the meetings between the partners and officials from the two governments, Zambezi River Authority chief executive, Mr Munyaradzi Munodawafa said the meetings were a huge success.

“The outcome of the meetings between the two governments and the co-operating partners has been successful,” he said.

A number of issues relating to implementation were discussed, which paves the way to ensure the rehabilitation works on the dam wall are adequately funded.

He added this will also ensure the expertise that will undertake the project to meet international safety standards to give a new lease of life to the Kariba Dam.

Head of EU delegation to Zambia Giles Hervio said he was pleased with the progress made so far in the preparatory work to ensure the rehabilitation works are done in a timely manner to avert a power deficit in future.

“This illustrates EU’s resolve to secure and increase access to electricity in Zambia and the region with the aim of improving the living conditions of the poor and promoting economic development,” Mr Hervio said.

AfDB country representative Mr Freddie Kwesiga said the rehabilitation will ease the already constrained power generation capacity in southern Africa.

“I am impressed with the great team work and sense of urgency by the technical teams of the financing institutions and Zambezi River Authority,” he said.

He said this showed that working together among co-operating partners can achieve great development results.

The Country Director of the World Bank, Kundhavi Kadiresan, commented: “We are pleased that the intensive work that the technical teams have been doing for the last few years has finally come together with this programme of rehabilitation for the Kariba dam”.

She said reliable power generation was needed to meet increasing demands of the region, adding the work between Zambia and Zimbabwe on Kariba rehabilitation paved the way for further collaboration on harnessing energy sources between the two countries.