Siavonga — Zimbabwe will next month settle the US$70.8 million principal debt owed to the Zambian Government over the sale of the Central African Power Corporation (CAPCO) to pave way for the construction of a joint Batoka hydro-power station in Southern Province.

Energy Minister Christopher Yaluma said yesterday in an interview that the Zimbabwe Government has committed itself to paying the $70 million debt by the end of next month.

Zambia has demanded that Zimbabwe pays the money which was the shared costs after Zimbabwe sold Copco and other Kariba Dam ass projectets.

This paves the way for the construction of the Batoka Power Station with an initial projection of producing as much as 1,760 megawatts of power.

Mr Yaluma expressed happiness at the development and that this would allow the processing of plans for the Batoka Power Station which the World Bank was also studying and might provide a loan for the project.

"Zimbabwe agreed some time back to pay back money they owe us from more than 20 years ago and by the end of next month, we should be seeing the money in and now we can talk about the Batoka project.

"We gave them the liberty to sell off assets from the CAPCO project but after they sold, they never gave us back the money, so basically that is what we are demanding but that money has accrued interest in that period," he said.

He said Zimbabwe was more eager about the Batoka project because it would meet the power shortfall in their country which has seen them import huge amounts of power from South Africa.

While the two countries have agreed on the $70.8 million, some gray areas still existed on the interest accrued over the years which was once quoted at $260 million.

Mr Yaluma said interest on the debts would be used as Zambia's equity contribution towards the Batoka project and if need arises for the country to top up.

But it is too early to say how much would be involved in the construction of the Batoka because the new feasibility study has not been done yet.

And as a way of signifying the willingness of the two countries over the debt and the Batoka Project a high profiled meeting between Zambia and Zimbabwe was held in Siavonga with follow up meetings expected later.

This was revealed before a high profile closed door meeting held between Zambian minister of Energy Christopher Yaluma, his deputy Charles Zulu with two Zimbabwean ministers -Elton Mangoma from Energy and Priscilla Mushonga from Regional Integration.

Also in the meeting was World Bank director for Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi Kundavi Karedesani and World Bank country managers for Zimbabwe and Malawi Nginya Mungai and Sandra Bloemenkamp respectively.

Also at the meeting were senior officials from Zesco and Zimbabwe Power Companies as well as from the Zambezi River Authority who manage the Kariba Dam.

The delegation earlier toured the Kariba dam and the power generation projects in the two countries.