05 Feb 2020

The Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) is undertaking Kuke Water Supply Master Plan project funded by the World Bank to the tune of P18.5 million.

The Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Kefentse Mzwinila, said this in response to a question from Ghanzi North MP, Mr John Thiite in Parliament on Tuesday.

Mr Mzwinila said the project entailed equipping of a borehole, feeding the settlement, constructing a transmission pipe, installation of elevated tank and  a 6km reticulation network.

This would meet the Kuke demand for 20 years and construction would run from May to January next year.

As a short term solution, Minister Mzwinila said the settlement was served through bowsers coupled with water rationing while awaiting long term interventions.

Speaking about Grootlaagte, the minister said the settlement shared a borehole yielding 110 cubic meters per day with Qabo, adding that the water was supplied interchangeably every second day between the two villages.

Mr Mzwinila, however, said water shortage was experienced during borehole equipment breakdowns and transmission pipeline failures.

He said during those un-planned downtimes, which usually lasted less than two days, a water bowser was used to supply Grootlaagte.

The minister, however, was concerned that water abuse for livestock watering was rampant in the settlement, which resulted in accelerated depletion of available water in storage and exacerbated shortages.

He said the village community was engaged quarterly on wise-water use and water conservation measures through kgotla meetings.

In the long term, the minister said his ministry had undertaken ground geophysical works with the intention of drilling and pump testing of four production boreholes per settlement to alleviate the water shortages.

He said this project would cover Kuke, D’Kar and Grootlaagte.

In D’Kar, WUC only supplied the school compound and not the settlement as it was within a privately owned farm, so the school’s demand was met.

Mr Mzwinila said his ministry was bowsing water as a temporary measure.

Ghanzi North legislator had asked the minister if he was aware of the acute water shortage in Kuke, D’Kar and Grootlaagte settlements.

MP Thiite wanted the minister to explain measures in place to address the situation in the short, medium and long term.

Furthermore, he wanted the minister to explain if he was aware that WUC failed to adequately remedy the situation by using water bowsers to supply water to the settlements.

Mr Thiite also asked if the minister was aware that acute water shortage was frustrating citizen economic empowerment and wanted him to state if loss of small stock did not frustrate government’s intentions to graduate the settlement communities and beneficiaries from poverty.

In addition, the legislator asked if that could not translate to wasting taxpayer’s money and if the situation was not emergency. ENDS