19 Sep 2019

Servicing of Maun Central Business District (CBD) will start in December 2021 and is expected to take 30 months to complete.

The project comprises of servicing of CBD expansion area, some secondary roads to Matshwane and Disaneng which were included as part of the design project to provide access to areas allocated but still not accessible.

Briefing the North West District Council on water, wastewater and land servicing projects, deputy director from Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Gabalemogwe Moanakwena said the detailed design and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study of the Maun CBD were 100 per cent complete.

He added that the cadastral layout was awaiting final improvement at the Department of Surveys and Mapping.

He said it was delayed by the finalisation of consultations with affected parties which took longer than expected.

He assured the house that the phase of the project would be completed.

Mr Moanakwena also stated that minimal servicing had been done, citing the scoping for Botshabelo infill, an area identified to relocate the people affected by CBD expansion.

The project, he said, would include about 2.5km tarred ring road to access the infill area, 4.5km gravel roads for plot tertiary access roads and 5km water reticulation to the plots.

The project was expected to commence in December 2019 and would take 12 months, he said, adding that on completion of the minimal servicing phase, affected parties would be given 12 months to relocate.

Another project, he said, included the Maun water supply and sanitation, noting that the construction of the main works was packaged into four contractors for easy management and beneficiation of several contractors. The project aims to improve the water supply and waste situation of Maun and its outlying satellite villages.

Mr Moanakwena said it would be achieved by developing water supply schemes for the villages and waste water scheme for Maun that would sustain the requirements as a long-term measure.

Contract one, he said, would focus on Maun water supply distribution, sanitation reticulation and telemetry, including instrumentation and control while contract two would include Maun borehole equipping, boreholes collector lines, water treatment plant and transmission pipelines from Nxaraga booster station to Shashe booster station.

He said contract three would focus on Maun waste water treatment plant east and west of the Thamalakane River while contract four would implement Maun satellite villages connections, including treatment plant at Sexaxa.

Mr Moanakwena said they wanted the construction of those contracts to follow at six months intervals, adding that contract two was at tender evaluation stage and expected to be awarded by October 2019 while contract three would be awarded by April 2020.

Contract four is expected to be awarded by October 2020, and the plan was to have all the contracts completed at the same time by October 2022 because they were dependent on each other for beneficial use, he added.

With regard to contract one, he observed that the tender was awarded to a company last year October, but the award was withdrawn in February following advice that the company was a threat to national security.

Mr Moanakwena said the tender was subsequently awarded to the next eligible bidder in March 2019.

The first awarded company sought interdiction for the project to proceed and the court made a ruling on September 6.

The said company lodged an appeal the same day and it was heard on September 19, 2019. ENDs