01 Mar 2020

Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services has told Parliament that plans are in place to address water supply challenges in various villages in Nata-Gweta constituency.

Mr Kefentse Mzwinila said the ministry was upgrading the Sowa water supply scheme project funded under the Botswana emergency water security and efficiency project (World Bank) at a tune of P185 million.

He said procurement for engineering consultancy for the design, tender documentation, tender management and construction supervision was also ongoing and award was planned for May.

“The design, tender documentation and tender management are expected to take six months, and procurement for construction works is scheduled to commence in November 2020,” Mr Mzwinila said.

He also indicated that the works procurement duration was planned for a four-month period and estimated works duration was 12 months while the planned practical completion date was March 2022.

“There were delays in commencing procurement for the project because the project team and World Bank team were concerned with water quantity and quality of Dukwi wellfield as a source, therefore it required assessment.

Dukwi wellfield models and data are old and required updating, therefore there was a need to revise the scope. To this end it was decided that the project no longer be done as design and build but rather a detailed design be done first, hence the tender for engineering consultancy, which will be followed by the tender of construction,” explained Mr Mzwinila.

Again, he said the World Bank technical team was to conduct several mandatory site visits for physical assessment of the situation, which only happened in October 2019, eight months after the project scope was raised.

Mr Mzwinila said there was a four-month delay in procurement process of the project by Water Utilities Corporation (WUC).

“To mitigate the challenge a project steering committee for all World Bank funded projects has been established at WUC to better fast track progress.

The project steering committee is mandated to conduct weekly progress meetings to improve project monitoring,” he said. He further stated that there were weekly management tender committee meetings and as and when there was need.

The WUC board tender committee, he said had been mandated by WUC board to make final decisions.

The challenges of water situation in the villages of Nata-Gweta will be resolved once the project was complete.

The minister was responding a question from Member of Parliament for Nata-Gweta, Mr Polson Majaga who wanted to know when implementation of the Sowa water master plan would commence as promised at Mosetse Kgotla back in November 2018.

Mr Majaga also wanted the minister to state what caused the delay as people of Mosetse and Nata-Gweta were suffering because of shortage of water and how soon the issue would be resolved. ENDS