VDM puts more funds into water projects

Another R4 million was budgeted for by the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM) to complete water projects at Mulina and Nthabalala. These projects were supposed to have been completed many years ago, but never served the community with any water as intended.

The two projects, which cost R12 million and R25 million respectively, had become “white elephants” as a result of defects in the lay-out and lack of water in the identified water sources. They were intended to provide water to 10 villages in the Nthabalala and Mulima areas. These villages include Masethe, Manyima, Ha-Maduwa, Pfanani, and Lambani.

Residents of Pfananani village have resorted to interim measures for them to have access to water and are contributing R5 per household to maintain a borehole that was drilled in the village two decades ago. Community members say the VDM project was completed in 2014 but does not supply them with water. After its completion, mud was coming out of the borehole instead of water.

The municipality then constructed another project at Mulima at a cost of R25 million. Two boreholes were drilled and two reservoirs constructed with the intention of connecting them to the mainline of the failed project at Nthabalala. However, this attempt was unsuccessful as the water pipes laid in 2012 were already damaged.

On Friday, 9 October, the executive mayor of Vhembe, Cllr Dowelani Nenguda, visited the two tribal councils to address issues around the projects and promised residents that more funds had been set aside for them.

VDM spokesperson Matodzi Ralushai said that the budget had been adjusted to support the two projects. According to him, the challenge with the projects was as the result of natural causes and no one could be blamed for it. “We no longer have water in many rivers in the area, so the sand-wells get dry.” He said, however, that whether a contractor was at fault or a natural cause, every cent counted.

Ralushai confirmed that the municipality had set aside around R4 million to assist in the intervention in the area of Mulima to facilitate progress.

Spokesperson for the Mulima Tribal Authority George Mukasi said they were hopeful that the municipality would rectify its mistakes to ensure that the water crisis was resolved. “We are quite happy that there’s money for the project, which was started long ago, and that the water crisis will end. The developing forum can engage with the municipality on how the money is going to be used.”

Ralushai said the project would be started as soon as the technical team had finalised their plans.

Date:28 November 2020

By: Kaizer Nengovhela

Kaizer Nengovhela started writing stories for Limpopo Mirror in 2000. Prior to that he had a five year stint at Phala-Phala FM as sports presenter. In 2005 Kaizer received an award from the province's premier as Best Sports Presenter. The same year he was also nominated as Best Sports Reporter by the Makhado Municipality. Kaizer was awarded the Mathatha Tsedu award in 2014.

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