15 May 2018

Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) is said to be experiencing a decline in yields in a number of boreholes around villages in the Letlhakeng Sub -district.

The most affected villages are Ngware, Botlhapatlou and Motokwe.

Officially opening the Letlhakeng Sub -district Council forum at Letlhakeng on Monday, the Sub Council chairperson, Mr Tlotlo Batlhophi indicated that the water supply around the sub district was generally fair with water demand met in most villages except Khudumelapye and Moshaweng.

He said that in an attempt to correct the situation, WUC had cleaned and rehabilitated boreholes with declining yields in Botlhapatlou and Ngware while a proposal to replace the collapsed borehole at Motokwe had been submitted for funding as an emergency project.

“WUC continues to implement projects that are aimed at improving water adequacy and reliability and through that initiative, Moshaweng has been replaced and commissioned, while at Khudumelapye, an additional water source connection is at design stage,” he said.

Mr Batlhophi also indicated that WUC in partnership with Leo Sychachter, a privately owned company, has constructed a booster station at Malwelwe worth P300 000 with the aim of supplying the village from Malwelwe- Botlhapatlou water supply scheme that supplies Molepolole cluster.

The project was officially opened yesterday.

Mr Batlhophi however, expressed concern that despite the water challenge in some parts of the sub district, there were still concerns of prevalent vandalism of WUC property, especially water pipelines that traverse long distances.

He said that frequent occurrence of vandalism was often reported on stand pipes and that affected service to the communities of such villages. He said vandalism had been reported mostly at Maboane, Takatokwane and Dutlwe.

On other issues, Mr Batlhophi indicated that the Department of Veterinary Services was currently embarking on an extensive exercise to register kraals, watering points, integrated fields and all communal animal holdings for European Union (EU) export compliance.

“The fundamental importance of this exercise is to qualify and validate residency of animals in a particular holding for compliance, either born in that are or through transfer,” he said. Ends