The Department of Water and Sanitation restores water in Majakaneng
Technicians belonging to the Department of Water and Sanitation have swung into action to repair leaking pipes and malfunctioning boreholes with the aim of restoring full water supply in Majakaneng, North West, which recently experienced violent service delivery protests. Consequently, all four boreholes that were repaired are now working and are pumping water to the local community.
The intervention is part of an agreement between the department and the MEC for Local government and Human Settlement in North West, Colleen Maine, to take over the running of water and sanitation issues from Madibeng District Municipality following violent service delivery protest in Letlhabile township and other areas. Maine announced the takeover during a public meeting recently at which Letlhabile residents expressed dissatisfaction with the municipality’s service delivery performance on water.
The residents complained about receiving water intermittently and high water bills even though most of them do not have water metres in their yards. They also complained about exorbitant electricity bills by the municipality even though most of the time they went for days without lights.
The technicians have fixed a leaking water reservoir and it is pumping water to full capacity. At least 1 570 leaks were identified in the area and 1 061 of these are in the process of being fixed. The department is targeting to repair 15 leaks a day per team. Also, 10 boreholes have been drilled and four of these will be developed into production boreholes.
In addition, the department has started supplying jojo tanks with the targeting of installing 31 such tanks before the end of this week. Similar work will be done in Madidi and Jericho villages as soon as the technicians have completed work in Majakaneng.
For more information contact:
Sputnik Ratau, Director Media Liaison, DWS
Cell: 082 874 2942
