Story by Justin Mahlahla
The People’s Republic of China has partnered Zimbabwe in expanding its borehole sinking project to Mahusekwa in Mashonaland East province.
Speaking during the launch of the project this Tuesday, Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Zhou Ding noted that the borehole sinking project was in response to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s declaration of a state of disaster following the El Nino drought.
“Due to the El Nino-induced drought, Zimbabwe entered a national state of disaster declared by H.E. President Mnangagwa on April 3rd. As Zimbabwe’s all weather friend, China quickly responded to H.E.President Mnangagwa’s call by providing emergency food assistance and implementing the 300 boreholes drilling project in the severely affected areas like Mashonaland East, Manicaland, Masvingo and Midlands, to alleviate water shortages,” he said.
“I hope that the boreholes supported by China Aid will help extinguish “the fire of drought” for our Zimbabwean friends.”
Ambassador Zhou added, “We’ve been doing this for decades as a time-honored friend of Zimbabwe. Over the past ten years, China has drilled more than 1,000 boreholes across Zimbabwe, providing easy access to clean water and agricultural irrigation for about 400,000 people. By implementing these projects, we’ve also created thousands of jobs and trained a significant number of technicians for the local communities.”
He also announced that in addition to the borehole project, China has also offered multiple batches of emergency food assistance for Zimbabwe.
“Now two shipments of 2,000 tons of rice are being shipped to Zimbabwe, carrying good wishes and care of the Chinese people. And this is just the beginning, more supports are on the way,” he said.
He added, “Dear friends, last August, H.E. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Plan for China Supporting Africa’s Agricultural Modernization at the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue. China is committed to enhancing cooperation on agriculture and food security with Zimbabwe. We will strengthen our support for Zimbabwe and Africa in transforming and upgrading its agricultural sector.
“At present, the 6th Chinese Agricultural Experts Group is working diligently in Zimbabwe, providing technical guidance, developing agricultural demonstration villages, upgrading irrigation facilities, and offering agricultural machinery services. Following the successful export of citrus, avocado will soon be exported to China.
“We will facilitate more Zimbabwean agricultural products being exported to China, so that more Zimbabwean farmers can benefit from our prosperous bilateral trade. We will soon start Juncao project in Zimbabwe, which I believe will help mitigate shortage of livestock feed, and expand income for local farmers effectively. Chinese companies are also increasing investments in agricultural sector in Zimbabwe, including expanding tobacco contract farming. Going forward, we are determined to make our agricultural cooperation even broader and stronger.”
The Chinese envoy expressed his government’s commitment to deepening relations with Zimbabwe in the areas of economic prosperity as well as supporting Zimbabwe in fulfilling its goals of NDS1 and Vision 2030 under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative.
“I believe that under the strong leadership of the leaders of our two countries, together we will achieve more fruitful results, and the flowers of China-Zimbabwe friendship will bloom and grow forever.”
China has over the years provided support to Zimbabwe in various sectors and has offered critical funding and other resources in addition to government grants or concessional loans for the construction of high-impact projects.
These include the National Pharmaceutical Warehouse, the New Parliament Building, the Kariba South Power Station and the Hwange Power Station, the Victoria Falls International Airport and the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, the NetOne Mobile Broadband Project, the High Performance Computing Cent
