The Zimbabwe Review: infrastructure

Showing posts with label infrastructure. Show all posts

Does Zimbabwe really need a new railway regulatory authority?

Sep 25, 2012

The National Railways of Zimbabwe are a government owned company and a monopoly. The company and its services are now a sad mere shadow of what they onc were. For many years there has been much talk of ‘re-capitalizing’ the railways but it has never happened. In any case the industry that once powered the railway company is floundering. There has been no suggestion that there is an interest or a possibility of private players competing with the NZR in the direct provision of railway services. So why on earth does a government minister say that a regulatory body is being considered?

The politics of ZESA electricity tariff hikes

Sep 1, 2011

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority just can't win. The monopoly for many years has been falling ever further behind in its ability to supply the country's electricity needs, a problem which now results in frequent and and long power cuts. At least part of the reason for this state of affairs is that the tariffs it is allowed to charge are below its costs of production and delivery of electricity, an inherently unsustainable situation. Yet increasing tariffs by 31% as it now seeks to do is perhaps unsustainable for other reasons, a catch 22 situation for ZESA.

Zimbabwe's innovative bulb exchange programme is not a waste of money

Aug 25, 2011

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority recently announced plans to give away energy saver bulbs in exchange for the old power-hungry incandescent types, which ZESA would destroy. The plan has been widely lauded as an important contribution to saving the country's chronically short supply of electricity. But not everyone thinks the $12 million programme is money well spent.

Derelict biodiesel plant: Zimbabwe's incredibly, needlessly wasted asset

Jul 25, 2011

Zimbabwe's efforts to set up a biodiesel plant during the worst of its foreign currency and fuel problems was a good idea at the wrong time. The pressures that led to the setting up of the plant may have become less urgent, but that is no excuse for allowing the plant to just rot away.

Zimbabwe's electricity deficit, in stark numbers

Jul 1, 2011

All Zimbabweans are painfully aware of the great problems the electricity monopoly ZESA is experiencing in providing power, but never have they been quantified in quite they way they were recently in parliament. The figures are startling and depressing.

Internet service improving in Zimbabwe, but still ridiculously expensive

Jun 15, 2011

The retarded development of an efficient, affordable internet infrastructure is one of the many ways that Zimbabwe has fallen behind many others during its 'lost decade.' For some years now difficult access, excrutiatingly slow speeds and high costs have been the norm. These have been compounded by indifferent service from ISPs and the country's frequent power cuts.

Zim power generation capacity finally getting new investment

Feb 5, 2011

Frequent power cuts are yet another sign of how Zimbabwe has declined in many sectors in the last decade. The power generation infrastructure that existed did not get the maintenance it needed and there was no new investment to increase capacity to match rising demand.

For a government that has always been obsessive about controlling the major sectors of the economy especially those considered 'strategic' like power generation, it is therefore a major development when Zimbabwe licenses five private power producers, as the Herald of February 4 reports.

Harare's crumbling road infrastructure

One of the most obvious signs of stagnation and decay from Zimbabwe's 'lost decade' of economic and political troubles is the crumbling road network.

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