Limpopo: R1.3bn from department will get taps running in 51 villages

Finally, the dream of some of the 55 Limpopo villages identified by former president Jacob Zuma to receive potable, clean running water on their doorstep will soon be realised following a R1.3 billion cash injection from the national department of water and sanitation.

The cash injection would help get the reticulation project off the ground with construction work beginning in January 2023 and being earmarked for completion on 30 June, 2024.

This was announced by Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu during his last week visit to Limpopo.

The 55 villages were identified in 2014 during the launch of the Presidential Giyani Bulk Water project. The villages, according Mchunu will start receiving water soon after the completion of the Nandoni pipeline project, which would draw water through cemented pipes from the Nandoni Dam to Giyani.

“The water will then be reticulated to the 55 villages,” said Mchunu. “The money will also help refurbish the existing purification plants and build new ones in an endeavour to store more water to equal the growing population of Giyani.

“The entire job will be in the hands of your own district executive mayor, Pule Shayi, and his competent staff,” he said.

The minister said the R1. 3 billion would cater for 24 of the 55 villages in phase 1 and that more money would be pumped out later to bankroll phase 2 of the project in the remaining villages. Mchunu’s budget announcement was received with great jubilation by officials, politicians and members of the community, including the Giyani Concerned Group and the Giyani Business Forum.

“The people of Giyani have been waiting for water on their doorsteps for far too long. This is music to our ears. We only hope this is not another talk-show,” said Giyani Concerned Group chair Vusi Chauke.

Lisbon Baloyi of Zingizingi said that since 2009 Giyani had been declared a disaster area. “This after the only two water sources for the town, Middle Letaba and Nsami Dam, dried up.

The town’s waste water treatment plant, which was dilapidated, became so full that waste fed into the Giyani River, flowing down the streams between the villages.

“This gave rise to opportunistic diseases such as cholera typhoid and other opportunistic diseases that killed people.

If Mchunu’s announcement is anything to goby, our beloved agricultural town, Giyani will be a better place to live for everyone,”

he said. Executive mayor for the Mopani district municipality Pule Shayi said the cash injection could mean only one thing – work, work and more work.

“The time has now come to get dirty. I am going to work until the last drop of my blood to ensure that our people have water – a basic human need – from their streets and in their yards on a daily basis,” said Shayi.

He said that under Mchunu’s leadership, there was hope a lot would be achieved.

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