The Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Mr. Parks Tau, Premier of the Free State, Mr. Mxolisi Dukwana and the Deputy Minister of Department of Water and Sanitation, Mr. David Mahlobo will be visiting the Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality.
Also participating in the programme will be the MEC for COGTA in Free State, Mr. Ketso Toto Makume and the leadership of the District and Local Municipalities.
The purpose of the visit is to handover 10 refurbished pump stations to the community of Qwaqwa. The handover of this important infrastructure will go a long in ensuring the dignity of communities as they have reliable sanitation infrastructure.
The Department of Cooperative Governance played a crucial role in this partnership towards the success of the project through the provision of technical support via the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) to provide verification on the work done.
A total of sixteen pump stations serving the areas of Club view, Letsha- le Maduke, Industrial area no 2, Industrial area no 3, Botjhabela, Mabolela, Tebang, Tshiame C were all vandalised and became non-functional. This created a huge health risk as raw sewer was running on the streets and even causing an overflow to some households.
In 2019, Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality conducted an inspection which determined that thirty-two sewer pump stations were non-functional due to theft and vandalism of cables and electromechanical components.
The municipality was unable to fix the vandalised pump stations and boreholes due to budgetary constraints and the technical capacity required.
To this effect, the Department of Cooperative Governance played a crucial role in the partnership to ensure the implementation of the project to fix the damaged infrastructure. Through the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) which is the implementing agenda of DCoG provided technical support and verification of the work done.
Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) funded refurbishment project, which is implemented in incremental phases. They prioritised ten (10) pump stations which have been completed with the reminder to be refurbished at a later stage.
This much-needed intervention is critical as it ensures that the sewer from different communities and industrial areas is controllable thus, ensuring that community members in affected areas now have access to and are using adequate and reliable functioning sewer systems with no sewer spillages.
The project handover is planned to take place as follows:
Time: 09h00
Date: Thur, 18 April 2024
Venue: Bloegumboch Community Hall (Qwaqwa)
For media enquiries, kindly contact:
Mr. Legadima Leso
Cell: 066 479 9904
Mr. Tsekiso Machike
Cell: 078 237 3900
