11 Aug 2019

 Parliament has rejected a request for P900 million by the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services for a new sub-project to be named 100 kilometre ‘Masama direct’ under the water supply pipelines project in National Development Plan 11 (NDP (11).

Twenty six MP’s voted against the requested P900 million while 24 voted for.

 Presenting the supplementary estimates expenditure from the consolidated and development funds to Parliament, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Kenneth Matambo said the envisaged project was aimed at addressing the water deficit within areas of Mochudi, Molepolole, Thamaga, Moshupa, Kanye, Rolong and Ramotswa at a cost of P900million.

 He explained that the current deficit in water supply for the southern part of the country stood at 35 million liters per day.

 Mr Matambo noted that the proposed works entailed constructing a separate 100 kilometres portable water pipeline from the Masama wellfields directly to the Mmamashia water treatment plant.

Upon completion, the minister said the pipeline would inject an additional 64 million liters per day of water into the system. He added that it was expected to alleviate the acute water situation in the southern part of the country.

 He highlighted that P900 million was needed to implement the project, adding that the inclusion of the sub-project would not require an additional annual budget.

 Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, he said, proposed to source funding from within the approved NDP11 ceiling through projects re-prioritisation.

 Mr Matambo noted that the suggested re-prioritisation was to re-direct funds from the Lobatse water master plan implementation project to the 100 kilometre Masama direct project, and that the implementation was expected to resume in August and last for a period of 12 months.

 He said the ministry also proposed to use the anticipated 2019/2020 savings that would arise from delays in the implementation of the budgeted North South Carrier 2.2 (NSC 2.2) work packages.

 Responding to the minister’s requests, chairperson of the finance and estimates committee, Mr Ignatius Moswaane rejected the supplementary proposal, saying the proposed project was not of the NDP 11 approved projects by Parliament.

He highlighted that the minister should have motivated for the inclusion of the project into NDP 11  through the mid-term review.

 Mr Moswaane stated that government  was already developing the North South Carrier II. He said it was included in NDP 11 and funded to over P1.8 billion hence it would be a duplicate to fund  a similar project with the same objective.

 “If the budget is approved for the 100 kilometre Masama-Mmamashia project, this will mean that a third pipe will be running parallel to the NSC I and NSC II, and it will be duplication of effort if both pipelines are working at their capacity,” he said.

 He said the committee has also been informed that injecting water from Masama wellfields into the NSC I pipeline had its challenges which were however marginal. Mr Moswaane also cited irregularities in awarding the tender. He said the Water Utilities Corporation tender committee had flouted procurement procedures by evaluating and awarding the tender without first securing the project funding. ENDS