The project is expected to take three years to complete. Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda said they were considering foreign financial assistance as the mega-project cannot be funded by local resources due to liquidity constraints.
He said the city could enter into a strategic partnership with a partner who brings in investment to the tune of US$539 million and the city would in turn, provide a customer base and the current infrastructure.
Alternatively, the city could secure a loan facility of US$539 million and pay back over a period of 25 years. “Cash flows were projected to establish the viability of this option. The cash flows indicate that the option is viable,” he said.
Masunda said there are three institutions — African Development Bank (AfDB), Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) — that could finance the project but there are sticking issues that needed to be ironed.
He urged politicians from across the divide to refrain from indulging in unnecessary rhetoric which could jeorpadise the city from raising US$1,3 billion for Kunzvi and Musami dams.
“As things stand, regional and international financial institutions, with a huge appetite for funding the type of capital projects under consideration, are understandably reluctant to deal with our central government which has, for example, not been able to honour our obligations to France (US$400 million) and Germany (US$800 million),” he said.
