26 Aug 2015

Upgrading of Mahalapye water infrastructure project has commenced, says Mahalapye sub council chairperson, Mr Tassman Cebani.

Officially opening the Mahalapye sub full council recently, Mr Cebani said the project, which promises seven villages stable water distribution network was awarded in March 2015 to the tune of over P243 million.

He said the project was awarded to a joint venture with 30 per cent going to a citizen contractor, and both the main contractor and consultants were on site.

He explained that the project entails construction of network in new area, approximately 132km expansion pipework and around 52km of replacement pipework.

Also include were tertiary lines of varying sizes which would cover 44.3km.

He noted that the project whose current status was 10 per cent would be implemented in two phases; Phase I was expected to be delivered in January 2016, while Phase II was expected to be complete on October 2016.

He said upon completion, the project would ensure water availability in the villages of Mahalapye, Shoshong, Bonwapitse, Mmutlane, Kalamare, Tobela and Taupye.

On Self Help Housing Agency, Mr Cebani said it was pleasing to note that the government has stepped up on her commitment to assist people in the worrisome area of shelter deficiency.

He said during the 2015/16 financial year, government has decided to increase funding from 17 to 51 beneficiaries per constituency for turnkey programme.

Therefore, he said Mahalapye sub district would be allocated funds to assist a total of 204 beneficiaries.

He said it was a commendable development, and hailed it as a true example of people centred development that aims at social upliftment.

On ARV roll out programme, Mr Cebani explained that as part of taking health care services to the people, Mahalapye sub District Health Management Team (DHMT) has rolled out ARV dispensing services to all its health facilities, therefore, attaining 100 percent coverage.

He said DHMT also managed to roll out ARV prescribing to 30 out of 42 facilities in the sub district and attaining coverage of 71 per cent, adding that the target was to reach 80 percent coverage by the end of the 2015/2016 financial year.

Mr Cebani said in the first quarter DHMT managed to roll out the prescribing services to facilities in Mokobeng, Ikongwe and Sheleketla, adding that currently there were a total of 16 337 clients on ARV across the sub district.

He said with more roll out, they were not only taking the services closer to the people, but also decongesting some of the bigger facilities with a larger number of clients, thereby reducing the time clients spend in facilities waiting for ARV services.  Ends