‘Why don’t we have water?’
A visit by the Minister of Water and Sanitation in Giyani revealed the gravity of the water reticulation project that is taking place in various parts of Giyani under the watch of the Mopani District Municipality.
At some of the projects that were visited on Monday, the contractors had not even progressed beyond 20% of the total work they were supposed to do, yet they had less than a month to complete the work. One example is in Thomo village where a contractor has only laid 16km of a 41.2km pipeline. The contractor in question had been given so many extensions that it has now passed 12 months for work that was supposed to take six months.
“Has he been punished for this?” asked the Deputy Minister of Human Settlement, Water, and Sanitation, David Mahlobo, the project manager. The response was that he had been given a warning and that he would be punished if he continued to fail. Mahlobo, however, was not impressed by this. “Your project was six months; how did it extend to 12 months?” he asked, warning the contractor to work hard.
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“If they hadn’t given you penalties yet, they should now,” he told the contractor, who confirmed that he was indeed given a warning about possible penalties if he continued to fail. Mahlobo was on a site visit to water reticulation projects around Thomo, Muyexe, Mninginisi, and Mhlava Welem villages, while the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, was visiting other villages in other parts of Giyani.
The aim was to get a clear picture of how the water reticulation projects were progressing. However, in most areas they were met with a grim picture of reality on the ground. Most contractors were either behind schedule or the work produced was of poor quality. At Mhlava Welem, the deputy minister had to listen to a group of community members who had gathered to tell him that the contractor was producing substandard work.
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“Most of the pipelines lie bare, but he claims that he is finished. Look at the steel water tank that he has just erected. It is leaking. It is clear that we’re not going to get water here any time soon,” said Mkateko Manganyi. In response, the deputy minister promised residents of Mhlava Welem that he would address some of their issues with the contractor.
“We’re here to inspect their work, and it seems some of the work here is not being done correctly; however the leakage in the steel tank has been fixed,” he said, assuring the community that the quality of work will be checked. He concluded that boreholes to supplement the water from Nsami Dam will also be considered in areas where communities struggle to get water.
