15 Jan 2018

Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Prince Maele recently visited the Radisele Water Supply Scheme to appreciate the challenges the facility was facing.

The scheme, designed and constructed to supply water to Radisele, Tewane, Mogome and Mokgware villages was handed over to Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) in 2016, but soon experienced water quality inconsistencies.

Palapye WUC general manager, Ms Daphne Motsumi informed Mr Maele during the tour over the weekend that laboratory test results indicated elevated levels of iron in the Mogome and Radisele tanks as well as in the distribution network resulting in the rusty coloured water.

She said water supply was impressive and adequate for the four villages.

She said in the meantime, three villages were connected to the scheme except for Mokgware, which is yet to be connected, adding that WUC currently supplied water to Mokgware through bowsers.

She indicated that prior to that, Radisele, Mogome and Mokgware villages were also supplied with water through bowsers.

She said WUC poured the water into the collector tank for distribution throughout the villages but did not experience any problem of rusting.

She said the problem of rusty water started after Radisele Water Supply Scheme started operating, and the corporation did some water quality investigations on the occurrence of rust in the distribution network and the corrosive level of the water.

Results indicated that water from both boreholes BH 8693 and BH 8695 had low levels of iron corrosive and would corrode steel material on both the storage tank and pipe network.

Again, it was observed that the final treated water from the plant, indicated high corrosive levels which showed unsaturated water with a tendency to remove existing protective coatings in pipelines and equipment, leading to the rusty colour observed on both the collector tank and distribution system.

To address the problem, principal quality control officer, Ms Helen Moduane said WUC recommended that an additional lime softening component be installed at the plant to allow the final water to pass through to remove the corrosiveness and increase the PH of the water to be slightly alkaline before the water is pumped into the final water tank and the Mogome storage tank.

She said quotations had been sourced from several reputable water treatment companies and the project is estimated to be delivered between three to six weeks after the awarding of tender.

In addition, Water Quality manager, Mr Teddy Ditsabatho said the rust was within the recommended level hence it did not pose any health risk to the people of the three villages.

He said every three months, WUC did some tests to check the water quality, adding that the council on the other hand also do separate tests to check the level of micro-organisms in the water.

He said so far tests indicated that the water was safe to drink.

However, Councillor Kgosiemang Monare was against the findings saying that the water was unsafe to drink as the communities in the three villages often complained of diarrhoea.

He urged Mr Maele and WUC to consider connecting villages supplied from the Radisele Water Supply Scheme to the North South Carrier (NSC).

The scheme is also expected to feed the four villages for a period of 20 years therefore connecting the villages to the NSC will be an effective long term solution, he said. ENDS