Lim praised for water solutions
LEPELLE Northern Water, an implementing agent for the national department of water affairs and sanitation and the province's water affairs department, recently received praise for successfully managing the chronic water shortage in Limpopo.
Alex Matlala
LIMPOPO – LEPELLE Northern Water, an implementing agent for the national department of water affairs and sanitation and the province’s water affairs department, recently received praise from the portfolio committee on water and sanitation in national parliament in Cape Town over the weekend.
Lepelle has changed the lives of nearly one million Limpopo residents for the better, while the local water affairs department was praised for successfully managing the chronic water shortage in Limpopo.
The committee visited the poverty stricken and disaster declared area of Mopani and Vhembe region last Thursday and Friday respectively.
The visit was aimed at checking progress made since the visit by president Jacob Zuma and followed by water affairs and sanitation minister, Nomvula Mokonyane in August this year.
According to Mopani mayor, Nkakareng Rakgoale, Mopani was the third largest region in Limpopo after Vhembe and Capricorn, with a population of just over 1 million people. Rakgoale said the region comprised five local municipalities, being Greater Tzaneen, Giyani, Letaba, Ba-Phalaborwa and Maruleng.
The national department moved the responsibility of being the water authority from Mopani Municipality to Lepelle on August 28 last year in order to regularise water and sanitation services in the region. The move was taken after several boreholes drilled by the municipality where allegedly found to be dysfunctional.
Lulu Johnson, chairperson of the portfolio committee on water and sanitation, said last Thursday that soon after the appointment, Lepelle committed a budget of R502, 5 million for the construction of the Giyani groundwater augmentation plant, the Giyani waste water treatment revitalisation plant and the Giyani conservation and demand management plant.
“We can now speak with great jubilation and paramount confidence that of the 55 villages hard hit by drought, 42 of them now have clean running water for their everyday household needs.
“The remaining 13 villages have functional boreholes supplying clean water everyday,” Johnson said.
According to Lepelle acting CEO, Pheneus Legodi, at the time they took over as the water authority, the booster pumps station project was stalled, bulk water supply from Giyani water treatment works was inadequate, high water losses through the system was the order of the day and most boreholes were dysfunctional.
Legodi further said the municipal water supply was very erratic and six boreholes meant to save the situation at Nkensani Hospital were also dysfunctional. He added that the Murhogolo pump station was dysfunctional and the expansion project had been abandoned since March 2010.
“But we are excited to announce that the Kremetart sewer pump station, the Nkensani Hospital ground water augmentation, Murogholo sewer transfer pump station, Xikumba booster pump station and Daniel booster pump station projects are ready for official hand-over as they are 100% complete,” Legodi said.
Legodi warned villagers to guard against vandalism which hampered free accessibility of water to some villages. He said it was the duty of all villagers to use water sparingly and report all kinds of vandalism and the theft of borehole equipments.
Grace Mashele, (79), a mother of 13 children in Siyandani village, which had no water for six years, had only this to say: “thanks to Lepelle for changing our lives for the better,” while many other residents echoed her sentiments.
