27 Sep 2015

Lobatse Town Council Deputy Mayor, Mr Francis Mokwena, says the area water master plan has been suspended due to lack of funds.

Addressing a council meeting on behalf of the Mayor, Ms Malebogo Kruger recently.

Mr Mokwena said suspending the plan had therefore affected upgrading of the Gaborone-Lobatse water supply transfer scheme.

Mr Mokwena said the water master plan which was last reported to be at evaluation stage, had also affected the water storage capacity within town, which was supposed to be addressed by the project.

However, Mr Mokwena explained that consideration was being made to implement the most urgent components of the programme such as replacement of the 160mm pipeline linking Hillside tank to Molapowabojang booster tank with a 50 mm pipeline.

He also told the meeting that the Nnywane Dam which supplies only 10 per cent of Lobatse demand was currently at 53.7 per cent and its capacity remained with a 9-month period supply without inflow.

Also, he said water shortage in town had affected school operations and impacted negatively on the teaching and learning processes.

Due to water shortage, Mr Mokwena said students had to most of the time be released early.

He however indicated that the sub-region got one bowser from Goodhope in order to normalise the water problem.

A borehole, he said had also been identified by Lobatse Senior Secondary School, adding preparations were also ongoing to make it functional by connecting electricity.

On developmental issues, Mr Mokwena said implementation of the current plans had been extended to start in March 2017 and not in March 2016 as it had been planned.

That, he said therefore meant that there was need to revisit proposals and review them to ensure that the town’s needs were fully catered for in the plan.

The plan preparation process, he said was an inclusive exercise which required consultation with all stakeholders and key players in the development agenda.

“This therefore calls for our utmost participation, commitment and dedication when we are called for consultation meeting,” he said.

Consultation, he said was an important aspect of the planning process where communities were given opportunity to raise issues and challenges faced and to also suggest mitigation measures or solutions to address them.

On the envisaged investment projects for the town, Mr Mokwena assured members that the two major projects, which included the leather park and dairy production, were still impending as promised.

He also revealed that the wire harnessing project by a company called PASDEC which was relocating from South Africa was expected to kick start physical relocation of the required infrastructure by the end of this year.

Therefore, he implored the council leadership to assist in expediting building permits, identifying alternative buildings for temporary use as a training centre to enable the company to start training the targeted 170 graduates interns during the first phase.

On government disability cash transfer, he said the initiative was implemented in Lobatse in July with a total of 44 people having been assessed for assistance out of which 31 were approved.

He said of 21 out 31 people had since started benefiting from the service whilst arrangements were still ongoing for others to be assisted.

Mr Mokwena said community members continued to show interest to utilise the Poverty eradication programme in order to uplift their socio economic status and graduate from poverty.

Out of the 185 people who had registered to be assisted under alternative packages this quarter, he said assessment was conducted and 158 clients had been recommended for assistance.

Nonetheless, he decried shortage of operational space and lack of commitment by some beneficiaries as one of the major challenges faced in the programme implementation.

He therefore called upon councillors to have concerted efforts in dealing with such challenges.

On health issues, he applauded the district for being counted among the well performing in cancer prevention issues that earned them credit to host the national launch for cervical cancer prevention which was held recently.

To date, he said 796 clients had been screened out of which 415 received treatment since the programme implementation which effected in September last year.

He also informed the meeting that the Ministry of Health had expanded on the safe male circumcision programme by including infants aged one to 60 days which started in July.

In compliance to the strategy, he said the Lobatse district started to offer services at Athlone Hospital maternity wing following training of three doctors, 13 midwives and two non-midwives.

Since the programme started, he indicated that a total of 34 out of 63 male infants who were born had been circumcised.

However, he said the programme was still new, adding not all mothers who were offered counselling consent for the service.

He noted that some mothers were under age and needed to consult with their parents before they approved circumcision of their babies. ENDS