24 of 55 villages will have water by June-DWS
Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa's mention of the Giyani Bulk Water Project pipeline during the SONA, the 55 villages around Giyani are still without water.
Herald contacted the Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson, Wisani Mabasa, for an update on the project that has been ongoing for years, going from an R90 million project to a whopping R4 billion. She said the Giyani Bulk Water Supply Scheme is comprised of four work packages. Work package 1 consists of the construction of the 40.5 km raw bulk pipeline from Nandoni Dam to Nsami Dam.
This pipeline’s purpose is to transfer raw bulk water from Nandoni to Nsami, to augment raw water coming from the Middle Letaba Dam. The water will be treated in the Giyani Water Treatment Works situated at Nsami, into potable water. This pipeline was completed in April 2023. She said that work package 2 entails constructing 325 secondary bulk pipelines from the commanding reservoir in Nsami to connections to the reservoirs that are supplying bulk water to the 55 villages.
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The construction of these various bulk water services to various villages is currently underway and at different phases, and 300 km of installations have already been covered with the remaining work expected to be completed between April to June 2024. This is primarily due to pressure testing, sealing off of chambers, and retrofitting, she said. Work package 3 is in 2 phases: The first phase is to refurbish the 30 megalitres a day (ml/d) Giyani Water Treatment Works (WTW) back to its optimal capacity.
The water treatment was functioning at 17 ml/d instead of its optimal capacity of 30 ml/d and is unable to meet the current demand in the area. Optimisation and refurbishment of Giyani WTW to 30 ml/day will be completed at the end of February 2024. The second phase of this work package was to upgrade the water treatment plant with a further 10 ml/d to ensure that it covers villages that are now being included in the network and will start in the new financial year, April 2024, stated Mabasa. The project is being implemented by the Mopani District Municipality through the Department of Water and Sanitation with Lepelle Northern Water as the implementation agent.
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She said work package 4 is a newly added package into the scope of the project that consists of reticulating the potable water to the 55 villages that have been added to the network to increase the level of services from communal taps to yard connections. This work package is also divided into 2 phases and is being implemented by the Mopani District Municipality through Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) funding. Phase 1 of the packaged 24 of the 55 villages started in January 2023 and is at various stages.
She said currently access to water is via boreholes. However, villages like Nindani, Gawula, Mnininginisi Block 2, Miyexe, and Vuhehli will start receiving water mid to end of March 2024. The bulk of the villages such as Homu 14 A and 14B, Xikukwani, Risinga, Bode, Dzingidzingi, Maswanganyi, Nwa Khuwani, Bambeni, Ngove, Sikhunyani, Mageva, Maphata are planned to receive water in June 2024. She said that the scattered approach on the date of delivery is based on the fact that these 37 contracts to cover 24 villages did not start all at the same time.
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Some started in March 2023, and the last was in August and September 2023. The dates have been accelerated to make the full system functional and operational by June 2024. The remaining 31 villages will be part of phase 2, and its reticulation will start in the new financial year, April 2024. All these work packages are on track and anticipate that they will be completed within the timelines.
