08 Nov 2021

Speakers at a recent Mmadinare stakeholder engagement forum were joyful and beamed with happiness at the ongoing of Selebi Phikwe to Serule water transfer scheme project that seeks to keep water flowing into their homes.

The project, whose implementation has been going back and forth for about 10 years, will be drawing water from Letsibogo Dam in Mmadinare through Selebi Phikwe, where the new pipeline will connect to quench thirst of residents of Serule, Gojwane, Topisi, Moreomabele inter alia. 

Expressing his excitement at the start of the World Bank funded water transfer scheme, Bobirwa Sub District Council Chairperson, Mr Christopher Motsholapheko was relieved that the funds were not diverted towards fighting COVID-19. 

Mr Motsholapheko said water shortage in his territory troubled him and others in the leadership, as a sub district so endowed with many big dams, continued to experience thirst. 

“Without necessarily being selfish, our expectations are that water should be running in our taps without abating,” he said, nonetheless exuding joy at the project that started in July. 

He was happy, lamenting however that cases of water shortage will remain, especially at the Mabolwe, Semolale, Gobojango and Lepokole areas, though few. 

The P293.5million water project implemented by Water Utilities Corporation and carried out by China Geo-Engineering Corporation, started in July and is expected to last 18 months and expected to be handed over on January 14, 2023 

A brief from the project manager, Mr Tapologo Phalaagae showed that the project was already at seven per cent. 

It is one of the projects selected from a list of ‘hot spots’ identified by the government as part of those to be implemented under National Development Plan 11. 

Other speakers, like Mr Leatile Ganetsang, a councillor for Mmadinare and Damuchujenaa, expressed gratitude that the project would put an end to the nagging water problem. 

“We have long awaited this project, while our people wallowed in thirst and despair,” said Mr Ganetsang, who is also Bobirwa Sub District Council deputy council chairman. 

Kgosi Maureen Mphoeng of Mmadinare was also ecstatic at the development, saying the people of the village and indeed the greater Mmadinare area, had longed for free flowing water into their homes for a long time. 

In addition to quenching thirst, the water transfer scheme project is expected to address dogging unemployment challenges in the villages. In fact, speakers wanted semi-skilled and unskilled labourers sourced from the villages, at the kgotla. 

Though excited about the impending end to water shortage in their villages, some speakers were skeptical and voiced their fears that without addressing the current water bottlenecks and network, the shortage may persist. 

They argued that the current network of pipes in the villages might not withstand the resultant water pressure from the new project. 

The concerns were born from the revelation that the project only entailed primary infrastructure that ends with water tanks, excluding distribution networks within the villages. 

ENDS