Full story: Much-needed reservoir is still a white elephant
It has been a year since the reservoir funded by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) at the Heads has been left literally high and dry.
LYDENBURG – It has been a year since the reservoir funded by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) at the Heads has been left literally high and dry.
This reservoir, which is supposed to supply 1 200 kilolitre of water to the town, has not been commissioned and according to sources, the reason seems to be that Thaba Chweu Municipality (TCM) has again failed to pay the supplier.
Reservoir capacity for Lydenburg/Mashishing has become a critical issue, and the town has suffered various water shortages in the past. For this reason DWFA funded the supply and installation of the reservoir at the museum facility. It is now said that TCM owes the supplier around R500 000.
According to Mr Leon de Jager of the Lydenburg /Mashishing Business Chamber and Technical Team, DWAF gave a grant to TCM more than two years ago to build an additional reservoir with a storage capacity of 1 200kl.
“The intention of this reservoir was to firstly increase the storage capacity for the Heads and Boulders and to increase the reservoir capacity in general.
TCM received the funds from DWAF and appointed a contractor to build the reservoir, but unfortunately, as in a number of cases, the funds were not properly appropriated and the contractor withdrew from the project before it could be completed.
It is alleged that TCM still owes the contractor some R500 000 to complete the job. So what do we have now? A useless steel structure that TCM has paid a few million rand towards is just standing there rusting away.”
He explained that in order to get the reservoir commissioned and change it from a useless steel structure to a useable asset for TCM and the town, the private sector was willing to support TCM and to do what was necessary to commission the reservoir.
“This is, however, only on the condition that TCM fulfil its obligation towards the contractor and pay them. It would be unethical to do it otherwise.”
The newspaper sent through queries regarding the reservoir to TCM . It asked whether the supplier would be paid so the reservoir could be connected to the system, why nothing had been done to connect the reservoir and to be supplied with detailed feedback.
TCM said it was true that the reservoir had been standing empty. “The contractor abandoned site and there are still contractual obligations which need to be sorted out by Department of Water Affairs and the municipality.”
Regarding the money owed to the supplier, TCM denies this stating, “The project was a Schedule 5(b) funded project by the Department of Water Affairs, the supplier of the tank had a contract with the main contractor, and hence it is not correct that TCM owes them money.”
Upon the question as to why nothing has been done to connect the reservoir, TCM said the reason it was not connected was because the contractor had abandoned site and unless the issues the latter had with the Department of Water Affairs were resolved connection could not take place.
