Question NW786 to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
09 April 2021 - NW786
Mokgotho, Ms SM to ask the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Given that the community of Moloto village in the Thembisile Hani Local Municipality in Mpumalanga have been hard hit by a water crisis that has forced the residents to buy water from persons who have drilled boreholes, by what date will she ensure that the specified municipality will provide water to the residents of Moloto village?
Reply:
The information was obtained from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Mpumalanga Province.
The municipality has been implementing a project for the development of groundwater supply scheme for Moloto with the aim of addressing the chronic water shortage faced by the above-mentioned village. The details of the project are as follows:
Name of Project: Moloto Village Ground Water Supply Scheme
Project scope: The project scope is as follows:
- Drilling and equipping of 10 boreholes (estimated yield 4.5Ml/day)
- Equipping of existing boreholes with electrical pumps
- Construction of Water Treatment Package Plant
- Construction of two (2) high lift pump stations.
- Construction of two (2) bulk water supply lines to the existing 5.0Ml concrete reservoir.
- Construction of a pump house, near the existing concrete reservoir.
- Eskom connection.
- Installation of automatic pump control units.
- Installation of pipe line appurtenances.
- Perimeter fencing.
- Water Use Licence (WUL) application.
Project Budget: The total budget for the full scope of works is R 28 579 251.05.
Project Start Date: 28 February 2019
Project completion Date: The project is projected to be completed as soon as Eskom completes the re-installation of the vandalised Eskom Kiosk.
Number of planned beneficiaries: The project is envisaged to serve a population of 20 966 persons
Project funding source: The project is funded through the Water Services infrastructure Grant (WSIG)
Currently, the project progress is at 90% with the outstanding works of ESKOM connection, testing and commissioning. The ESKOM connection was done last year but the connection equipment and a transformer were subsequently stolen just after installation while Eskom was in the process of completing the installation.
Following a number of meetings between ESKOM and the municipality, a consensus was reached to put security measures to protect the infrastructure before ESKOM can replace the stolen items, of which the municipality did in October 2020. Therefore, it was then expected that ESKOM will replace all the stolen items and energise the boreholes however to this end, this has not been done even after numerous letters, and telephonic conversations to follow-up on the matter.
The recent report from ESKOM is that they are still in a process of procuring the stolen items. Once installation is completed in June 2021, the community of Moloto will have sustainable water supply.
In addition, the Municipality has completed the construction of a 5Ml reservoir to augment the water storage capacity and has also started with the implementation of the Moloto Water Infrastructure (Water reticulation) project of which the inception meeting was held on 04th March 2021. The project is under construction and will be implemented in 3 phases. Phase one is projected to be completed by 30 March 2022. A total of 4 770 households expected to benefit from the project.
Based on the above the municipality has a plan to address the water challenges faced by the residents of the Moloto village.