Deputy Minister Mahlobo handed over boreholes and tanks to communities in Phola
The Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Mr David Mahlobo handed over boreholes and water storage tanks to communities in Makgarule and Phola in the City of Mbombela in Mpumalanga Province on Saturday, 27 August 2022.
The Deputy Minister handed over a borehole with two communal taps and a 10 000 litres water storage tank to each of the communities. The boreholes will cater for 95 households in Makgarule and 94 households in Phola within a 250 metres radius from the boreholes. The boreholes were drilled as part of the Inkomati-Usuthu Catchment Management Agency (IUCMA) Corporate Social Investment.
Power supply to the two boreholes is through solar panels which are safely installed in nearby households in the communities to ensure security of the panels. This is also to strengthen community ownership of the projects and to instil a sense of collaboration between government and the communities in securing their assets. The Deputy Minister thanked the two households who opened their living spaces for the installation of the solar panels for the benefit of their communities.
In his handover address to the communities, Deputy Minister Mahlobo thanked the IUCMA and the Provincial Office of DWS for heeding the call of the communities by providing reliable water supply and called on the communities to safeguard and protect the infrastructure from theft and vandalism as it is not government infrastructure but their infrastructure in efforts to ensure reliable water supply.
He also called on the Provincial DWS and the IUCMA and the City of Mbombela to add more storage tanks as the one 10 000 litres tank was not enough for the communities. DWS and the IUCMA committed to provide three extra storage tanks in Makgarule and the City of Mbombela was requested to add another three tanks in Phola.
It is shocking and most unfortunate that some who were nowhere near Makgarule and Phola on Saturday, 27th August, took it upon themselves to share skewed and misleading information about efforts to bring relief to the people of the area. It is the intention of government to work with communities and inform on whatever will be happening in their environments, which is what Deputy Minister Mahlobo, the COGTA MEC Mandla Ndlovu, and councillors from Mbombela did by engaging the communities on the day.
Issued by the Department of Water & Sanitation
For more information, contact Sputnik Ratau, Spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation on 082 874 2942 or Themba Khoza on 066 301 6962
