30 Jan 2020

Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) is battling with a water network that is vulnerable to breakdowns due to pressure.

Lobatse Management Centre water works superintendent, Mr James Moyo, said the problem often caused disruptions to water service in the town.

“We have a very old infrastructure in this place. The pipes keep on breaking down because they are old. It is a challenge which we are facing,” Mr Moyo informed a stakeholder engagement forum in Lobatse on Monday.

He said part of the infrastructure consisted of old asbestos pipes, which were susceptible to breaking, while other parts of the town, pipes were in state of decay due to rusting.

He said WUC was working on addressing the challenge through implementation of the Lobatse Water Masterplan Project.

The multi-million Pula project was aimed at upgrading the current water infrastructure to improve water supply to Lobatse cluster, which included Lobatse township, Mmathethe, Molapowabojang, Lorwana, Digawana, Mogojogojo and Kgomokasitwa villages.

Mr Moyo said Mmathethe was facing the severest water supply challenge out of all villages in the Lobatse cluster as a result of blocked pipes.

Lobatse Management Centre general manager, Mr Mpho Tsotetsi, explained that Lobatse cluster required 15 million litres of water per day.

He said Lobatse, however, got 10 million of the supply while the rest was shared by other places within the cluster.

Lobatse/Kanye management area head of business, Mr Abednigo Mooka said a total supply for the whole Lobatse Management Centre was 32 million litres per day.

He said this was below the 35 million litres per day demand for the management centre, which included villages in the Goodhope Sub-district.

He also said the biggest challenge they had was that most of the infrastructure in their area was too old, having been constructed during the 1970s and 80s and last rehabilitated in around the start of the century.

“The pipes in most of our villages require to be replaced by new ones because they are old and dilapidated,” he said.

Mr Mooka added that vandalism of infrastructure by people was another challenge faced by the corporation.

Thus, he pleaded with members of the society to stop vandalising water infrastructure, further urging them to conserve water. Ends