16 May 2017

The North East District continues to experience water shortage despite the filled up dams in the region, says  the council chairperson, councillor Florah Mpetsane.

Addressing a full council meeting in Masunga on May 15, councillor Mpetsane said the water shortage was attributed to infrastructure failures in the district.

She noted that the Ntimbale Dam water supply infrastructure had inadequate capacity to meet the normal water demand resulting in prolonged water shortages which were more pronounced at villages along the A1 road.

However, she said the challenge would be addressed through the implementation of the North East and Tutume Sub-district water supply project which was expected to commence by the end of this financial year.

Ms Mpetsane highlighted that the approval of guidelines for community development projects would improve the infrastructure and stimulate economic growth at the local level.

She said priority would be given to projects focusing on local production aimed at creating employment opportunities and addressing infrastructure challenges in the constituencies.

She noted that if two constituencies within the same jurisdiction decided to combine their funds to come up with a high impact project that would benefit more people in creating employment, the arrangement would be allowed.

The chairperson said the envisaged land registration target for North East District had not been met according to statistics captured in the system.

She said this was evidenced by the 29 656 plots claimed as opposed to the 53 059 surveyed plots.

“The main challenge realised is that there were a number of claims not captured in the system because some claims did not have plot numbers, and as such, it was difficult to relate each claim to its surveyed plot.”

Ms Mpetsane said the land board was, therefore, carrying out door to door visits in order to remedy the situation, and encouraged the public to liaise with the land board to complete the exercise.

She thanked her co-councillors for re-electing her as the council chair, adding that through their collective efforts they would take the district to greater heights. ENDS