Poor roads, sewerage dull Phikwe�s investment luster
Onalenna Kelebeile | Thursday March 2, 2017 17:53
Councillors have proposed that the P20 million allocated under the Constituency Development Fund to the town’s two constituencies be exclusively set aside to sprucing up internal roads, storm water drainage and sewerage system.
During this week’s full council session, councillors said the three projects should be made a priority to attract investment into the town.
Thakadiawa councillor, Evelyn Kgodungwe said the state of internal roads warrants reconstruction and not repair.
“This is a situation where repairs will not be enough. These roads need to be rebuilt,” she said.
Town Mayor Amogelang Mojuta, said financial limitations had hampered the local authority from undertaking periodic maintenance of internal roads.
“Lack of maintenance activities has heightened the deterioration of internal roads and most of the tarred roads have passed their lifespan,” he said.
“On the other hand, implementation of the storm water drainage master plan is still pending in some parts of town due to lack of funding.”
He said guidelines on how the constituency funds would be used, are still being formulated and the funds have not been allocated yet.
“Council authorities will meet to see how best these issues can be addressed,” he said.
Issues of wastewater or sewerage water leakages have been a major concern especially in Botshabelo where spillages and bad odour are common.
However, the Water Utilities Corporations (WUC) has said that current problems will be alleviated in the area. The long-term solution, officials say, is to acquire standby pumps in all pump stations to avoid downtime and thus address issues of leakages.
WUC branch manager Lucas Makepe said installation of new pumps and control panels in Botshabelo and Area U had been completed.
“The procurement of a surface pump at Police sewer pump station has been done and installation will be outsourced.
“Mathathane wastewater spillages were drastically reduced because no spillages were experienced from Police pump station for the past four months.
“There are indications that Pimville pipeline continues to be a problem due to frequent blockages as a result of accumulation of sand,” he said.
Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of Mekoro drainage is complete and the project is under a defects liability period of 12 months, councillors were told. The main objective of the project was to re-orientate the storm water drainage structures at Mekoro location.