WUC serves poor quality water—AG report
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday February 27, 2023 06:00
As if that is not bad enough, communities are said to have been drinking water that does not meet required specifications. Auditor General (AG), Pulane Letebele presented the report for financial year ending March 2021 to Finance Minister, Peggy Serame recently.
The objective of the performance audit was to assess whether the WUC had put measures in place to ensure that provision of potable water services was carried out in an economic, efficient and effective manner in the country.
The audit focused on the operations of WUC with regard to provision of potable water in the country from financial years 2014/15 to 2018/19. Some villages have little to no potable water “Among key audit findings is that WUC has not been able to supply adequate drinking water to the population in the country. Moreover, WUC has not been able to match water demand with supply from available water sources.
The imbalances in the national water supply and demand was due to insufficient water production from the available water sources resulting from a decline in borehole yields. The inadequate water supply had also been aggravated by high water losses due to frequent pipe bursts. The existence of imbalances in water distribution system had resulted in shortage of water in some areas,” Letebele stated.
The report says WUC management's response indicates that the development of a National Water Conservation and Water Demand Management (NWC&DM) project was ongoing and was planned to be completed in May 2021 after which implementation by various stakeholders would start. The audit found that WUC has not been able to ensure that all people had access to potable water in the country as some villages in the country had limited or no access to potable water.
They stated that some households in some villages had limited or no access to potable water due to delays in connecting customers to the water grid and water pressure imbalance in the water distribution network, especially in villages with varying topography. “In response, the management indicated that they had developed a new WUC structure that has streamlined responsibilities.
Under the new structure that came into effect in November 2020 with new connections and network maintenance under separate sections, it is expected that the 20 days target for the new connections will be met,” she said. With regard to imbalance in water pressure, management reportedly indicated that, Water Supply and Demand Management is implemented along the North South Carrier Corridor including the Greater Gaborone area and rollout to other areas was ongoing. In addition, WUC management indicated that a Non-Revenue Water Reduction Strategy has been developed.
Communities supplied with below par water The drinking water supplied to the communities did not meet the required specifications for drinking water as it contained micro-organisms that exceeded allowable limits for drinking water for both chemistry and microbiology indicators. “The audit further revealed that there was inadequate monitoring of water quality in the water distribution facilities such as water storage tanks and water distribution network. This was attributed to lack of monitoring equipment as well as transport to fulfill the sampling schedule. The supply of contaminated water is a public health threat,” Letebele stated.
According to the report, in response, the WUC management indicated that the Corporation has several projects aimed at installation of new treatment plants and optimisation of the existing treatment plants as well as moving from disinfection using chlorine gas to chlorine dioxide which has more advantages. In areas where there are no treatment facilities, chlorine floaters and tablets are used in disinfection and meanwhile water quality is monitored on a daily basis with manual dosing of chlorine through floaters in villages with no disinfection facilities.
Poor maintenance of potable water infrastructure
The audit also unearthed that the Corporation did not adequately maintain its water infrastructure (boreholes, booster pumps, water storage tanks and water treatment plants) as maintenance was executed in a reactive manner.
This was reportedly due to procurement inefficiencies, lack of expertise and capacity by WUC to carry out maintenance, as well as inadequate management of water infrastructure projects. The downtime of infrastructure had resulted in some communities staying for more than two days to a month without water. In response, the WUC management indicated that Maintenance Strategy (known as Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)) is in place for some Business Centres.
Preventative maintenance schedules are generated through the system for all Business Centres and adherence to schedules will be enforced. The management further indicated that plans to implement the Asset Maintenance Strategy are in place as induction has been carried out at other Business Centres. In addition, bulk water metres are monitored, and internal mechanism are cleaned/replaced as and when the need arise as per the existing Meter Testing and Replacement Policy.
WUC unable to control water losses
The audit further revealed that WUC was not able to control the water losses to the internationally accepted rate of 15%. Both apparent and real water losses experienced by WUC were mainly from the water distribution system through leakages, customer metre inaccuracies and unauthorised consumption. The high water losses were due to lack of a leak detection strategy and inadequate maintenance of water infrastructure.
The water losses had reportedly negatively contributed to the imbalance in water demand and supply. Additionally, the water losses reportedly strained the water resources and reduced the Corporation’s revenue. “In response, the management indicated that a project for the Supply, Installation and Commissioning of Non-Revenue Water Monitoring Equipment had been approved. The management further indicated that a Pilot Project of satellite technology in detecting leaks in water pipeline network for Molepolole and Kanye Villages was ongoing,” Letebele stated.
Revenue Collection from Water Sales
WUC had not effectively collected water consumption revenue from its customers as evidenced by high debt from its customers (government institutions, domestic consumers, business and industrial). The contributing factor to this included irregular water metre readings, which led to inefficiency in billing its customers. In response, the management indicated that a comprehensive Debt Management Strategy has been developed and that focus will be on implementing and driving collections.
This includes: calling customers, loud haulers, final demand letters and use of third party debt collectors. The management further indicated that customers are also encouraged to pay through other platforms such as the WUC App, cell phone, internet banking etc. Customers are also encouraged to pay by being given messages via the radios. The detailed report is said to have been tabled separately before the National Assembly and to be examined by the relevant Public Accounts Committees during their regular sittings.