Phikwe hit by water shortage

Onalenna Kelebeile | Thursday January 30, 2014 15:44

ONALENNA KELEBEILE

Staff Writer

SELEBI-PHIKWE: Selebi-Phikwe and surrounding villages this week experienced a serious water shortage that resulted in students being turned away from schools.

'We immediately informed BCL mine because they mainly rely on raw water for the smelter and fortunately not much was affected because the mine was also on shutdown,' he added.

He added that the delay to reinstate supply was due to the fact that it took them two days to clear the site where the burst occurred because of the high water pressure.

Another cause of delay was due to rainy weather conditions that deterred the water works team from promptly attending to the problem.

Makepe said a contractor who was working along the pipeline destroyed the pipe.

'Reinstatement of the pipe was only managed on Tuesday afternoon and then we allowed water to gravitate,' he added.

Makepe said treatment at the Selebi-Phikwe plant started as early as 4am yesterday and water was opened for consumption at 6pm the same day.

This meant that the whole town would have water supply restored by the same afternoon while villages like Sefhophe would have their water supply restored a few hours later. Makepe said it was usually advisable for contractors to consult all service providers to avoid such incidents.

He said it was unfortunate that they learnt about the contractor on site after the pipe burst. It was destroyed where there is a marker post. The public was informed about the water shortage through a public address system and a notice that was aired on local radio stations.

Meanwhile, a week earlier, the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) cut electricity to most schools in the copper and nickel mining town after the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) failed to settle schoolsí bills.

Mmegi has been informed that power supply to Mmadinare Senior Secondary School was restored after a brief disconnection last Tuesday.

But some schools including Mojamorago, Phatsimo, Boikhutso, Lebogang, Makome and Selebi-Phikwe Junior Secondary Schools have been without power since Tuesday last week.

Mmegi approached the ministry's director of operations for the central region Molebi Morolong who, however, could not shed any light on how much BPC was owed.

BPC, which has since disclosed it was owed millions of Pula by defaulters, was on a countrywide drive to cut electricity to defaulting clients.

Morolong could only say she forwarded the issue to the headquarters, as they were the ones who directly dealt with payments of water and electricity bills.

'I have no doubt that this shall have a negative impact on teaching and learning. We have been assured that payments are being processed,' she said.

Efforts to get a comment from the ministry headquarters were unsuccessful at the time of going to press.

The ministry's public relations office, which had requested a questionnaire, had not responded to it.

BPC spokesperson Spencer Moreri said he was not in a position to divulge information between the corporation and its clients to a third party.

'We are currently on a collection drive which started last year when we rolled out the prepaid system.

'We made contractual agreements with our clients to pay up before switching to the new system but some have defaulted. But for schools I cannot divulge information on how much they owe,' he said.

The problem, according to Botswana Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) water works engineer Lucas Makepe, resulted from a raw water pipe burst that occurred last Saturday forcing a brief shutdown exercise. 'We immediately informed BCL mine because they mainly rely on raw water for the smelter and fortunately not much was affected because the mine was also on shutdown,' he added. He added that the delay to reinstate supply was due to the fact that it took them two days to clear the site where the burst occurred because of the high water pressure. Another cause of delay was due to rainy weather conditions that deterred the water works team from promptly attending to the problem. Makepe said a contractor who was working along the pipeline destroyed the pipe. 'Reinstatement of the pipe was only managed on Tuesday afternoon and then we allowed water to gravitate,' he added.Makepe said treatment at the Selebi-Phikwe plant started as early as 4am yesterday and water was opened for consumption at 6pm the same day. This meant that the whole town would have water supply restored by the same afternoon while villages like Sefhophe would have their water supply restored a few hours later.

Makepe said it was usually advisable for contractors to consult all service providers to avoid such incidents. He said it was unfortunate that they learnt about the contractor on site after the pipe burst. It was destroyed where there is a marker post. The public was informed about the water shortage through a public address system and a notice that was aired on local radio stations.Meanwhile, a week earlier, the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) cut electricity to most schools in the copper and nickel mining town after the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) failed to settle schoolsí bills.Mmegi has been informed that power supply to Mmadinare Senior Secondary School was restored after a brief disconnection last Tuesday.But some schools including Mojamorago, Phatsimo, Boikhutso, Lebogang, Makome and Selebi-Phikwe Junior Secondary Schools have been without power since Tuesday last week.Mmegi approached the ministry's director of operations for the central region Molebi Morolong who, however, could not shed any light on how much BPC was owed.BPC, which has since disclosed it was owed millions of Pula by defaulters, was on a countrywide drive to cut electricity to defaulting clients. Morolong could only say she forwarded the issue to the headquarters, as they were the ones who directly dealt with payments of water and electricity bills.

'I have no doubt that this shall have a negative impact on teaching and learning. We have been assured that payments are being processed,' she said.Efforts to get a comment from the ministry headquarters were unsuccessful at the time of going to press.The ministry's public relations office, which had requested a questionnaire, had not responded to it.

BPC spokesperson Spencer Moreri said he was not in a position to divulge information between the corporation and its clients to a third party. 'We are currently on a collection drive which started last year when we rolled out the prepaid system. 'We made contractual agreements with our clients to pay up before switching to the new system but some have defaulted. But for schools I cannot divulge information on how much they owe,' he said.