11 Jul 2023

 Assistant Minister for State President Mr Dumezweni Mthimkhulu, told Parliament that the long awaited Molepolole Water and Sanitation project has not started because of insufficient funding.

Responding to a question in Parliament on behalf of the Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Mr Mthimkhulu said construction of the project was expected to have taken place in 2020/21 financial year alongside the ongoing Molepolole- Gamononyane NSC connection project.

The objective of the project was to rehabilitate, upgrade the network for purposes of distributing water supply and sanitation services to increase access to safe, adequate, sustainable water and sanitation.

Mr Mthimkhulu said the plan was to undertake both water supply and wastewater network at the same time with the intention to harmonize implementation of the two systems such that disturbances to the community were minimized and resultantly save on compensation fees. He said the project total estimated cost for construction was P2.5 billion with a planned implementation period of 18 months. He said due to the work to be done, the Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs had divided the project into six components that would be awarded to six contracts running concurrently to shorten the procurement process, achieve efficiency in the delivery of the project and shorten the project implementation period.

The assistant minister indicated that this project had since been included in the Second Transitional National Development Plan 2023- 24/25 with a budget allocation of P1.9 billion against the total project budget of P2.5 billion of which P416. 7 million was allocated to the current financial year. Furthermore, he said, since the funds available under the Transitional National Development Plan were lower than the budget the ministry prioritized some areas for rehabilitation of portable water and construction of a new wastewater plan to connect some institutions. The remaining scope, he said, would be implemented during NDP 12.

He said this project was currently at a procurement stage. The MP for Molepolole North, Mr Oabile Regoeng, had asked the Minister of Lands and Water Affairs to state when the long promised Molepolole sewage and water sanitation project would commence. ENDS