05 Dec 2018

The design for the envisaged new hospital at Plateau commenced in August, Chobe District council chairperson, Mr  Paul Chabaesele has told fellow councillors.

Speaking at  a full council meeting on December 4, Councillor Chabaesele said the hospital project was a P3.7-million contract and its scope included design of global infrastructure development services such as Environmental Impact Assessment, roads, associated storm water drainage system and street lighting, among others.

Still on district projects, Cllr Chabaesele said the council took possession of the site of the surfacing of Kazungula road from the contractor on November 8 after the contract was terminated for failure to do and complete the project on time.

He said the council was going through a process of tendering to complete the works left by the failed contractor and would ensure a quick response so that the project was completed within time.

On the Kazungula Bridge project, he said at the end of October, the progress was at 71.14 per cent against the 68.96 per cent as per revised programme. 

He said the bridge, which was the first package of the project, has been delayed by over four months while the estimated time delay of the construction of the one-stop border post facilities was delayed by close to eight weeks.

He said the district was still awaiting allocation of the land for the construction of the mini stadium project and hoped for the land allocation to be fast-tracked in 2019.

Regarding the safety of water in the district, Cllr Chabaesele said Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) had assured the public that contrary to media reports on wastewater leakage into raw water source in Kasane the water  was safe.

He however said WUC admitted to having had a mechanical failure in its pumps recently, which resulted in some spillage in the river. 

“The failure, which is a rare occurrence, was addressed within 24 hours in line with WUC’s sewage management guidelines,” he said.

The council chairperson explained that efforts were being made to temporarily store the flows while working on a permanent solution to divert the flow to avoid mixing with hot springs water. 

He said WUC was still experiencing low payment of bills as the debt has accumulated to P8 million. 

He implored councillors to mobilise communities to settle their bills and also encourage them to use the WUC payment application, which was recently launched.

On the 2018/19 cropping season that just started, Cllr Chabaesele said the district had received 40 metric tonnes of seeds which were being distributed among farmers, stating that the ministry had issued local seed varieties such as Kalahari Early Pearl, segaolane and Tswana cowpeas, which were adapted to the local conditions.

The council chairperson implored farmers to take advice from agricultural extension officers and also practice conservation agriculture to conserve moisture as this would enable their crops to survive high temperatures. ENDS