A ZIMBABWE Reconstruction Fund (Zimref) mission is in the country to support the implementation of a $20 million national water project, which aims to improve access to water and sanitation services in selected small town growth centres.
BY BUSINESS REPORTER
The project seeks to improve water resources planning and support reform of the water sector nationally.
Afrec communications officer, Cheryl Khuphe said the mission will provide implementation support, review progress on project implementation, financial management and procurement, environmental and social safeguards.
She said the focus on small town growth centres reflected a gap in donor financing for the subsector.
The growth centres set to benefit were Lupane, Madziwa, Zimunya, Gutu, Nembudziya, Guruve and Mataga.
These were drawn from the Project Implementation unit, which were the Zimbabwe National Water Authority’s (Zinwa) catchment centres, Khuphe said.
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“An estimated 52 000 Zimbabweans will benefit from the rehabilitation and expansion of the water systems in these seven small towns. The project will also provide technical assistance for the development of the National Water Resources Master Plan, the commercialisation of Zinwa and the creation of an independent water services regulator as stipulated by the National Water Policy,” she said.
The growth centre water and sanitation improvements cost $14,04 million.
Investments will include expanding and rehabilitating water treatment works, boreholes, transmission mains, storage and service reservoirs, distribution systems, connections, and meter installation and replacement.
Zimref is a country-specific multi-donor trust fund managed by the World Bank.
The mission started running yesterday and will end on Friday.
The team is led by World Bank infrastructure specialist Chloe Oliver Viola and includes other specialists in procurement, water and sanitation, engineering, environment and financial management.
Zimref supports recipient-executed, bank-executed and hybrid projects under its four programmatic windows — private sector productivity and competitiveness; governance, efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditure; strengthening livelihoods and resilience; and analytical and advisory work.
Initial donors to Zimref include Denmark, the European Union, Germany, Norway, the State and Peace Building Fund, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Denmark exited the programme at the end of June.
As at December 31, 2015, eight projects, worth $60m, were approved.
Zimref has raised contributions and programme interventions totalling $40m.
Zimref was currently working on eight projects on national water, public financial enhancement, public procurement modernisation, business environment, financial sector and investment policy technical assistance.
It was also looking at results-based budgeting technical assistance, capital budgeting technical assistance, climate change technical assistance and poverty monitoring and ZimAsset monitoring and evaluation technical assistance.
