26 Feb 2013

Maun surface water treatment plant project is expected to be complete by September 25 this year, according to the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources.

The ministry’s principal public relations officer, Ms Potso Thari said in an interview that the project was awarded to AEVVMI Joint Venture on August 17, 2012.

“Initially the project was to commence in June 2011, but the tenders submitted then did not qualify for award and the tender was subsequently cancelled,” she said.

She said the project was conceived as a medium term solution to address water shortage in Maun.

Ms Thari said following cancellation of the initial tender, the Department of Water Affairs drew up a new tender document in September 2011. At the time, there was greater urgency for the work as the main pipe conveying water from Kunyere boreholes was damaged by floodwaters at Sitatunga.

“To ease water shortage, the procurement method was revised from open tender to single sourcing in order to fast-track the project implementation and this method also did not work as both parties could not reach an agreement,” she said.

She indicated that a third round of tendering was then floated between May 14 and June 13, 2012.

“Subsequently the tender was awarded to AEVVMI Joint Venture on August 17, 2012, with the official commencement date being September 26, 2012,” said Ms Thari.

She indicated that the contractor had already completed the design for the works and that DWA approved it on November 29, 2012, which meant the work would be on schedule.

On what the ministry was doing to address water shortage in Maun, Ms Thari said her ministry had short, medium and long-term projects that the ministry would implement and some were already being implemented.

“The short term being the expansion of Wenela treatment plant from 710 cubic metres per day capacity to 2 208 cubic metres per day at a cost of P5 million in 2011,” she said.

She further said in January 2012, water affairs built an additional four portable water treatment plants each producing 20 cubic metres per hour as another short-term project.

Ms Thari said the surface water treatment plant with a capacity of 6 000 cubic metres per day was currently the only mid-term intervention.

“This plant will be treating Thamalakane river water,” she indicated. As for long-term projects, she said her ministry would be implementing Maun water supply and sanitation phase II project.

“The project includes water supply distribution network optimisation, rehabilitation and expansion. This component will take care of the optimisation and rehabilitation of existing distribution network and expand it to allocated areas without coverage. It would also cover future village expansion following the Maun development plan," she said.

She said the Phase II project included water supply source development, transmission, treatment, storage and distribution and it would look at development of the water source, the transmission mains and treatment process as well as storage system from the treated water before distribution into the network.

She said the plan was to develop the Kunyere and Matsibe well fields, which she said had the capacity to deliver up to 13000 cubic metres per day to increase the current supply. ENDS