No end in sight for Phikwe pit latrines-Town Clerk

Onalenna Kelebeile | Thursday May 28, 2015 15:50

Selebi-Phikwe Town Clerk Poloko Mojalemotho said this during a tour of the council projects by the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Frans Van Der Westhuizen on Tuesday.

“As a result of the design defects, some homes are not connected to the sewer line because during construction it was discovered that some areas were omitted from the design and therefore did not form part of the contract.

“This left some grey pockets within the serviced area and it meant that all homes located in the grey areas do not have access to the main sewer line, thus limiting them to usage of pit latrines and septic tanks,” said the mayor.

The affected homesteads fall along a 9km pipeline in the Western Area and a portion in Ikageleng location.

He added that with the advent of water sector reforms, functions pertaining to provision of wastewater services were relocated from local authorities to Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) while the matter pertaining to the unserviced areas was left unresolved.

“The council could not secure funding for completion of the omitted areas since the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, that initially sponsored the project, had been divested of the function of provision of waste water infrastructure.

“The responsibility has now been conferred upon WUC,” he added.

He further noted that phasing out pit latrines now remains a challenge because some people are not connected to the sewerline.

At the same time, Mojalemotho noted that studies have revealed that Selebi-Phikwe and its hinterland is characterised by a high water table, therefore continued use of pit latrines pose the risk of contamination of underground water sources.

“This is also against the Wastewater and Sanitation Policy and it is in violation of the ideals of the Urban Development Standards” said Mojalemotho.

WUC’s Selebi-Phikwe branch manager Lucas Makepe said that unless acts are reviewed there is nothing they can do because the responsibility to service land does not fall within their mandate.

“The design was done by the council in 2004 and the audit was carried out in 2007 while implementation of a two year project started in 2008.

“We took over this liability from the council, but then we do not provide infrastructure. Unless the act can be reviewed then we can have that provision in our budget,” he added during an interview.

Makepe also noted that they have had negotiations with the council to consider financing the project with WUC providing supervision.

The whole situation has aggrieved residents who fail to receive satisfactory answers over the matter.

The Town Clerk requested for the intervention of the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development to try and find a solution with regard to the provision of wastewater infrastructure in Selebi-Phikwe.

Van der Westhuizen expressed serious concern over the situation and said residents are justified to be aggrieved.

“Something could have been done while the construction was still ongoing. Now government has to source funds to correct this anomaly and this is really disturbing,” he said.

Van der Westhuizen had earlier on decried poor performance of contractors. He complained that councils continue to engage contractors that are not performing, but hop from one council to the other.

“Such contractors have litigations, but they get employed by other councils and nobody is saying anything about it.

“This shows that there is ongoing manipulation of information and sometimes councils are culprits when these things happen,” he said.