06 Dec 2022

Vandalism of water infrastructure is a cause for concern in the North West District.

Delivering his opening remarks at the North West District full Council sitting on Monday, chairperson Mr Kebareeditse Ntsogotho said incidents of vandalism were a drawback as they reversed efforts by the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) to ensure supply reliability.

He said the water supply situation had improved in many villages across the district but with such acts of vandalism the affected villages could experience water shortage.

‘’The vandalism on water infrastructure results not only in water supply disruption, but loss of treated water leading to high operational costs,’’ he said.

Councilor Ntsogotho stated that broken infrastructure ended up polluting water as dirt could seep into the reticulation system which could be a health risk for consumers.

The council chairperson pleaded with councilors to raise awareness in their respective wards about the dangers and cost repercussions that were caused by the vandalism of water infrastructure.

He highlighted that WUC had started implementing measures to recover customer debt since February 1. The measures, Councillor Ntsogotho said were initiated following extensive consultations with the affected customers and aimed at easing debt payment plans.

Mr Ntsogotho noted that the Business Centre’s debt stood at P63 million as at November 2022 and he therefore encouraged the public to pay their water bills.

Moreover, he stated that in order to align with the Reset Agenda on local economic inclusion, WUC had outsourced some of its services to local contractors.

 He said through the initiative, works started in July 2022 by outsourcing 753 new installations and replacement of 654 stuck/damaged meters to eight local companies to eliminate any backlog.

Mr Ntsogotho said in an effort to improve water supply, the corporation through the Ministry of Land Management and Water Affairs undertook several development projects during the 2022/2023 financial year, which included Maun Phase 2 Project which was packaged in Contracts 1,2,3 and 4.

These projects, he said encompassed borehole equipping, construction of water treatment plant and transmission lines from Nxaraga to Shashe, design, supply and building of wastewater treatment plants in Maun East and Maun West.  ENDS