Controversial Masama Project To Be Retabled Before Parly
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday November 18, 2019 11:04
This came after the 11th Parliament rejected the proposal before the House was dissolved. Then, 26 Members of Parliament (MPs) voted against the requested funds while 24 were in favour.
In an interview the Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Kefentse Mzwinila explained that it was important for the proposed project to be brought back to the House in order to address acute water shortage problems facing the country.
“People need water especially in the southern part where there is serious shortage of water. I wish the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Thapelo Matsheka, could retable the project before the end of this month.
The issue of water shortage has been topical in the election campaigns and my Ministry’s objective is to address the issue,” Mzwinila said.
He said Masama project is the only one that can address water shortages in some parts of the country given the current dire water challenges.
The Minister further pointed out that it would be an unfortunate situation if the current Parliament could also reject the project as the previous one.
Mzwinila stressed that climate challenge has affected the country badly leading to water shortages. Meanwhile, when presenting the supplementary estimates expenditure from the consolidated funds to Parliament, former Finance Minister, Kenneth Matambo said the envisaged project was aimed at addressing the water deficit within areas of Mochudi, Molepolole, Thamaga, Moshupa, Kanye, Rolong and Ramotswa at a cost of P900million.
He explained that the current deficit in water supply for the southern part of the country stood at 35 million litres per day.
Matambo noted that the proposed works entailed constructing a separate 100 kilometres potable water pipeline from the Masama wellfields directly to the Mmamashia water treatment plant.
Upon completion, the Minister said the pipeline would inject additional 64 million litres per day of water into the system. He added that it was expected to alleviate the acute water shortage in the Southern part of the country.
Some MPs at the time rejected the supplementary proposal saying the project was not part of the NDP 11 approved projects by Parliament.
Francistown West MP, Ignatius Moswaane said the Minister should have motivated for the inclusion of the project into NDP 11 through the mid-term review.
He argued the government was already developing the North South Carrier II.
The MP stated that the project was included in NDP 11 and funded at over P1.8 billion hence it would be a duplication to fund a similar project with the same objective.