End of water woes in sight
After the taps in numerous villages in Mogalakwena have run dry and the need for water arose there is light at the end of the tunnel.
LIMPOPO – The Mogalakwena Municipality has recently purchased four water tanker trucks to the value of R6 million, one tractor loader backhoe (TLB) and one grader, to maintain the roads, for storm water management, to tackle the infrastructure challenges head-on and to boost water delivery to drought stricken villages.
The municipality covers the town of Mokopane and 179 villages in a radius of over 150 km around it.
With 32 wards it serves the total population, which at the last count of statistics SA numbered 307 682 population with 79 396 households.
Mayor Parks Sebatjane emphasised that the purchase of the water tanker trucks will go a long way towards ensuring the municipality serve communities better and that the municipality have the capacity to deal with the water crisis, while long term solutions are underway.
Sebatjane further said: “The 16 000-litre tankers will supplement the 13 000-litre tank, which is already in use of the municipality. As a municipality with a large rural population which has been even more affected by the drought, the rural wards will be targeted to benefit from the use of these water tanker trucks.
“These water tanker trucks are to be placed at all our Service Delivery Areas (SDA) for ease of access by our communities particularly on a day to day basis.”
Mayor Sebatjane indicated that they are adding to the already seven purchased trucks that were moving all over the municipal area, but now they will be deployed around the peri-urban areas.
“During the IDP roadshows the re-graveling of the rural roads and the maintenance thereof were among the top issues the community were complaining about. “The machines will help with the construction of roads, attend to emergency request from ward councillors, maintain the rural roads,” Sebatjane added.
The National Treasury through the Department of Water and Sanitation have committed itself into providing a Schedule 5B grant to assist Mogalakwena Municipality in addressing the water services backlog with the theme: ‘Save water for all.”
