Tuesday, April 17, 2012

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE BULAWAYO WATER SUMMIT

On Friday 17 April 2012 Habakkuk Trust in conjunction with Shalom Project, NANGO Western Region and Intscha.com held a Water Summit to commemorate the 100 years of the dream for a Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project. Below are some of the recommendations from the breakfast meeting that was attended by various stakeholders who include among others civic society, business, and the academia.
• There is need for clarity on the operations and separation of powers between the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust and the National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project,
• Clear separation of roles between the national government, the local authorities, National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project and Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust on the project,
• The Bulawayo City Council should consider other sources of water,
• There is clear explanations on the progress made at the Gwayi Shangani Dam and on the details of the deal the Minister of Water Resources and Development has struck with the Chinese,
• All the responsible authorities should come up clean on the costs involved in drawing water from Gwayi Shangani and the Zambezi and the true implications of the project,
• The petition that is being circulated should be handed over to the Minister,
• Formulation of clear sources of funding for the project,
• Civic society should facilitate the formulation of a Matabeleland Declaration on Water that is going to guide the timelines on the completion of the project,
• Bulawayo City Council should speed of the duplication of the Insiza Pipeline

Habakkuk Trust shall continue its advocacy work on access to clean water for all and shall continue to lobby various stakeholders on the issue.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

WATER SUMMIT SET FOR TOMORROW

By Habakkuk Trust Information Department

100 years on, the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project is still without progress in commencing the scheme which is seen as the salvation to the perennial Matabeleland and Bulawayo water woes; civic society in Bulawayo has decided to tackle the issue head own through a breakfast water summit to be held on Friday 13 April 2012.

The organizations, Habakkuk Trust, Shalom Project Trust, INTSCHA.COM and NANGO Western Region have sought to use the breakfast meeting which will convene key leaders from the region to:
• To assess the challenges and obstacles in accessing funding for Bulawayo’s water woes,
• Advocate for the speedy implementation of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project, and
• Formulate strategies of ensuring that the project is implemented.

The breakfast meeting shall be guided by key presentations from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources and Development; the President of the Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe; the Bulawayo City Council Engineer and representatives of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project among other stakeholders.

MATOBO WARD 4 ADVOCACY ACTION TEAM SET

On Tuesday 10 April 2012, 42 participants who attended the Habakkuk Trust Local Level Advocacy Training programme earlier this year in Matobo Ward 4, convened at the ward centre to elect their 25 member community advocacy action team.
This action team is set to be instrumental in pursuing advocacy on issues of access to clean water, and access to health facilities through the construction of a community clinic.
Currently the community advocacy team is researching thoroughly on the two advocacy issues in preparation for a community consensus building meeting and a policy dialogue meeting.