Lessons for Zimbabwe from the Russia-Ukraine conflict

This deficit continues to grow day by day as our mines reopen and our industries recover and expand.

From as low as 47 percent in 2020, our industry capacity utilisation stood at 66 percent by end of 2021.

It continues to grow in 2022 and beyond.

That means our power needs continue to gallop in sympathy with this industrial upturn.

While Kariba Hydropower project has been our energy mainstay, its reliability is subject to water levels in the Zambezi River.

As we saw recently, this can no longer be guaranteed in these times of climate change.

The shift to green energy and economies limits scope on thermal power whose raw material, coal, we have in abundance.

With that background in mind, real possibilities lie in developing solar, gas and more hydro-electric projects.

In respect of gas and hydroelectricity, the sister Republic of Mozambique offers huge opportunities both for immediately augmenting our own power supply through more imports, and in medium to long term, through new energy projects built on a joint venture basis.

The projected gas pipeline from Buzi to Mutare should offer new possibilities, as too, does the Mpanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Project whose power generation capacity is remarkably stable, thanks to waters from Zambezi, Kafue and from waters that flow from Malawi.

Zimbabwe should team up with Mozambique’s power authority EDM, whose thermal gas project I had occasion to visit during the recent historic State Visit to that sister country.

Still on energy, I am aware that we have our own thermal gas in Lupane which needs tapping.

The insights we got through our visit to EDM thermal gas electricity generation plant, leaves us clearer on how to go about it, and where to source technologies both for tapping the gas and harnessing it for energy and fertilisers.

Lupane gas project will ensure multiple gains for our country, now that our water reservoir at Gwayi-Shangani, and the water pipeline to Bulawayo are on course to completion and execution, respectively.

All told, we thus should have two gas-related projects in the country: that in Mutare feeding off gas fields of Buzi in Mozambique, and another in Lupane powered by our own gas deposits.

We wait with bated breath for the outcome to exploration work currently underway in Muzarabani where we are hopeful a third plant will develop.

Before long, Zimbabwe must have a robust gas industry to power its agriculture and meet its energy needs. We also found a solution to protect our power grid from copper-cable vandalism.

With the resuscitation of the long moth-balled Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, ZISCO, and with a green field steel project in Manhize and Mvuma, Zimbabwe is on the cusp of becoming an iron and steel manufacturing giant in the region and on our continent.

Continued next page

(242 VIEWS)