22 May 2018

Member of Parliament for Shashe West, Mr Fidelis Molao has implored the leadership of his constituency to appreciate water challenges in their area and help in ensuring that the little which was there was used properly.

Briefing the leadership and Tutume Sub-district council officials prior to the tour of Maitengwe Wellfields and Ntimbale Dam, Mr Molao said it was imperative for the village leadership to come on board and address the water challenges experienced.

He added that having an understanding of the water situation would help them inform their communities instead of not knowing what was happening on the ground and failing to share appropriate information.

In addition, he said there had been situations when despite working together as the leadership, they would give contradictory information to the people resulting in confusion and mistrust.

For his part, Water Utilities Corporation Masunga water management centre general manager, Mr Abednico Mooko explained that their centre served five constituencies of Nata/Gweta, Nkange, Tati East and West as well as Shashe West.

He noted that they were faced with serious water challenges resulting in them failing to supply the 52 villages under the constituencies.

He added that they experienced water shortages directly from the source, noting that in the case of the Mathangwane cluster served by Shashe Dam, it required about 3.5 million cubic litres whereas their infrastructure could only pump up to 2 million cubic litres.

He said some areas end up receiving insufficient water, citing the areas of Borolong and Chadibe among others.

In the case of Ntimbale Dam, he noted that they were cleaning 14.2 million cubic litres needed to water all the north east constituencies as well as some parts of Shashe West and Nkange. However, he pointed out that the constraints were at the pump station as it could only pump 7 million cubic litres.

Mr Mooko noted that since the government had secured funds from the World Bank in which they had been given about P250 million to be used in the North East-Tutume water master plan they were confident they would be able to upgrade their pump station to improve the water supply.

Furthermore, he said on completion the Maitengwe Wellfields would remain on standby, and that they were hopefully the boreholes would recover and the water quality would also improve.

He, however, noted that  the project was at the infant stage with the consultant having been appointed end of last year. He said he had been given six months to have completed the design review, adding that it means that the actual project might commence sometime next year. Ends