19 Jun 2019

Water shortage has continued to strike some villages in the North East District.

North East District Council chairperson, Ms Florah Mpetsane,  told a full council meeting in Masunga on June 17 that such villages included Jackalas 1, Senyawe, Siviya, Tshesebe and Tsamaya.

She said the water demand was not met due to limitation of water supply infrastructure.

Ms Mpetsane said the source of water in the district was predominantly Ntimbale Dam with a total capacity of 26 million cubic metres that could not be distributed sufficiently due to lack of proper infrastructure.

She highlighted that a rationing schedule had been devised to meet water demand in the eastern villages.

She further said water supply to Matopi and Patayamtebele was also inadequate since the villages were supplied from low yielding well points along Ramokgwebana and Shashe rivers.

The chairperson noted that existing water distribution infrastructure across villages was old and dilapidated resulting in persistent leakages.

However, she said WUC was in the process of replacing badly leaking pipes and upgrading portions of the network as well as tank repairs.

She indicated that Shashe Dam was at 83.9 per cent full, which she said could capably supply the demand to the area for a period of 22 months without inflow.

Ms Mpetsane said ploughing for the 2018/19 season was a challenge in the district due to shortage of rainfall.

She stated that a total of 9 715 hectares was ploughed in the entire district by a total of 3 862 farmers.

Due to the heat wave that swept the country, she said the district was expecting low crop yields as some crops burnt and wilted in the soil.

Ms Mpetsane emphasised that government had declared 2019 a drought year, adding that 35 per cent drought subsidy had been approved.

She stated that this subsidy price of 35 per cent would only affect livestock feed, feed supplements and veterinary requisites.

Ms Mpetsane said the supplementary registration that was scheduled from April 15 to 28 saw 1 650 and 1 317 voters registering in Tati East and Tati West respectively.

She highlighted that the voters roll for the general registration that was from September 3 to November 11, 2018 was published in April 2019 for inspection.

However, she stated that eight objections were raised from Tati West constituency and they appeared before Magistrate court on June 5 and 6 this year.

The chairperson highlighted that the voter transfers for general registration had commenced while transfers for the two supplementary registrations had not commenced yet.

Ms Mpetsane said the Moroka hostels for children with special needs had been opened for lodging a total of 22 students.

She said the hostel would take the strain off the children because they used to wake up very early in the morning from villages as far as Masunga, Kgari, Mulambakwena among others to travel to Moroka.

With regard to the Masunga /Tshesebe road, Ms Mpetsane said a retender evaluation report for the road had been submitted to the Ministry of Transport and Communications for adjudication by PPADB.

She stated that access roads that were awarded to the terminated contractor Bash carriers had been handed back to the Department of Roads to be included in their maintenance plan using in-house resources. Ends