Giyani said to have benefited from government aid
Zuma singled out water problems in the municipality as one of the issues government had put a lot of effort into to help improve citizens' living conditions
LIMPOPO – Despite dry dams which threaten to dry out taps in the near future, Giyani Municipality residents are said to have benefited from intervention by the national government to fix water problems in the municipality after it was declared a disaster area in 2009.
Speaking during a Freedom Day celebration at the Giyani Stadium on Wednesday, president Jacob Zuma said Giyani was among communities in the country whose lives were significantly changed through government’s programmes.
Zuma singled out water problems in the municipality as one of the issues government had put a lot of effort into to help improve citizens’ living conditions.
“In 2009, we declared Giyani a disaster zone and subsequently adopted it into the presidential “Siyahlola” programme in order to redress critical shortage of water in the area.
“Through the Department of Water and Sanitation, we issued an emergency directive to Lepelle Northern Water in August 2014 to regularise the provision of water and sanitation in Mopani, particularly in Giyani Municipality,” he said.
He listed a number of projects completed in Giyani and four other municipalities in Mopani as an example that government had done a lot to change the lives of ordinary people since 1994.
“These projects include the revitalisation of 154 boreholes with package plans to ensure the water becomes fit for human consumption,” he said, adding that the situation of water in Giyani had now been reduced.
“At the moment, 55 villages that had been prioritised out of 91 villages in the municipality have bulk water supply due to this intervention,” he said.
