24 Feb 2022

Water Utilities Corporation head of business centre Mr Abednico Mooka has revealed that WUC Mochudi service centre is owed 43 million Pula. 

Mr Mooka revealed this at a stakeholder engagement forum  in Rasesa on Tuesday. 

He said about 60 percent of the debt was from domestic and businesses clients. He said although the corporation was still using the manual method of meter-reading, they have introduced hand-held units which are mapped and connected to meters and pipelines, adding that the gadgets will help reduce issues of mis-reading of meters. He said power outages were one of the main causes of water supply interruptions. 

With regards to dam levels and water supply situation as at 21/02/2022, WUC stakeholder management and communications specialist, Ms Beauty Mokoba said that amongst others, Dikgatlhong dam was at 90.1 per cent and can go up to 24 months of supply without inflow, Gaborone dam at 51.4 per cent and can go up to 20 months of supply without inflow whilst Bokaa dam was at 90.8 per cent and can go up to 13 months of supply without inflow. 

She however said water availability in sources does not translate to water coverage due to inadequate network infrastructure. Speaking to the objectives of the day, WUC lead engineer Mr Lopang Modise said the forum was meant to appreciate customer concerns and share ideas, indicate challenges as well as share mitigations put in place to curb those challenges. 

He further added that one objectives of the stakeholder forum was to highlight on technological modes that can be used by customers to manage their accounts. 

Furthermore, on the water supply situation, Mr Modise said WUC Mochudi service centre had water demand of 10 408 M3/day against a supply of 11 000 M3/day form Mmamashia water treatment plant resulting in a surplus of 592 M3/day, adding that there were 83 prepaid standpipes in Kgatleng of which 26 were in greater Mochudi and operational. 

He said some locations such as Matebeleng, Mokatse, Pilane, Tsopye and Diphonchi still received no water due to small aged network pipes, topographical elevation profile and low pressure. 

He however said the  areas were bowsed on a daily basis. Mr Modise noted that some of the mitigations to challenges were the upgrading of pipe diameter, in-house network extension, further noting that currently there was a plan underway to relocate Oodi and Mochudi booster tank to Rasesa hill. ends