Publication: Zimbabwe's Infrastructure: A Continental Perspective
Date
2011-03
ISSN
Published
2011-03
Author(s)
Pushak, Nataliya
Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia M.
Abstract
Despite general economic decline and
power supply deficiencies, infrastructure made a modest net
contribution of less than half a percentage point to
Zimbabwe's improved per capita growth performance in
recent years. Raising the country's infrastructure
endowment to that of the region's middle-income
countries could boost annual growth by about 2.4 percentage
points. Zimbabwe made significant progress in infrastructure
in its early period as an independent state. The country
managed to put in place a national electricity network and
establish regional interconnection in the power sector; to
build an extensive network of roads for countrywide
accessibility and integration into the regional transport
corridors; to lay the water and sewerage system; and to make
progress on building dams and tapping the significant
irrigation potential. Unfortunately, at present the
cross-cutting issue across all these sectors is
Zimbabwe's inability to maintain and rehabilitate the
existing infrastructure since the country became immersed in
economic and political turmoil in the late 1990s. Neglect of
all sectors due to the crisis has resulted in a generalized
lack of new investment (in the power and water sectors in
particular), and the accumulation of a huge rehabilitation
agenda. Quality of service has declined across the board.
The power system has become unjustifiably costly,
inefficient, and unreliable. The condition of roads has
deteriorated to the point that Zimbabwe became a bottleneck
on the North-South transport corridor. Rural connectivity
hardly exists. Failure to treat potable water, along with
the deterioration of the water, sanitation, and garbage
disposal systems, was responsible for the spread of cholera
in 2008. By 2010 cholera affected most areas of the country
and posed a health threat to neighboring countries. Looking
ahead, Zimbabwe faces a number of important infrastructure
challenges. Zimbabwe's most pressing challenges lie in
the power and water sectors. Inefficient and unreliable
power supply poses major risks to the economy, while the
maintenance and upgrading of existing power infrastructure
no longer looks to be affordable. At the same time,
overhauling the water and sewerage system is imperative for
curbing the public health crisis.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Pushak, Nataliya; Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia M.. 2011. Zimbabwe's Infrastructure: A Continental Perspective. Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic;. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27258 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”