Sixteen villages in North-East water scheme remain thirsty
● contractor denies responsibility
At least 16 of the 52 villages in the North East and Tutume Sub district are not benefiting from the P200 million water scheme commissioned last November by Unik Construction.
Unik Construction General Manager, Yun Sun says his company has done a fantastic job upgrading the infrastructure as required, and that it never failed.
With the current water supply of 14ML/day projected to be above the computed water demand of about 7.5 ML/day used for the design of the scheme, dry pipes in 16 vilages has become a disturbing feature since the project was commissioned, forcing authorities to look for alternatives to water the villages.
Mmegi has it on good authority that following the discovery of the shortfall, a meeting was convened in Francistown Water Utilities Corporation office on July 7 with the Project Team and the Business Centre Team, followed by a site visit to strategic project sites (Masingwaneng Plant and Chilokoti Tank), to appreciate the challenges facing the project.
The 16 villages missing out on the water scheme include five from Tutume Sub District namely, Senete, Changate, Dagwi, Nkange and Maitengwe, all of which are now supplied from the Maitengwe wellfields, resulting in interrupted supplies that have become common in the villages.
In North East District, intermittent water supply challenges continue to be experienced in six villages comprising Masukwane, Jackalas No. 1, Butale, Senyawe, Siviya and Themashanga.
Furthermore the village of Butale and Siviya are also supplied from boreholes while at Moroka village a conjunctive use of resources has been considered to augment water supply in the area, Mmegi can reveal. An internal report reveals that the combined estimated water demand for the two districts, almost exceeds supply despite the project design spanning over a 20-year horizon.
On the other hand, water sales report shows that about half of water production is billed in any given month , meaning that only half of the water intended to reach customers is billed in any given month while another half is unaccounted for, atleast by end of March 2022.
North East, Tutume Scheme
Water Supply Challenges: According to documents seen by Mmegi, Mbalambi storage tanks (both 6.8 ML and 1.5ML Storage Capacity) are unable to meet the demand for both North East District and Tutume Sub District villages expected to benefit from the scheme.
Due to the above stated reason, the commissioning of the water supply from Mbalambi via Tutume to Senete-Maitengwe cluster villages has not been realised. The water could only reach Senete village, which is nearer Tutume.
Further there is insufficient storage at Moroka Concrete Tank to supply villages on the eastern part of the North East District.
According to documents, the pumps at Mbalambi are rated at 108l/hr, each with a maximum daily supply of 5.2 ML/day, which are attainable only if two pumps are in service for 24hrs with minimum interruption. Meanwhile, the estimated demand for villages downstream of Mbalambi tank is 4.2ML/ day, however, due to intermittent operation of pumps, the maximum output remains farfetched as tank levels have a direct bearing on pumping philosophy.
Power outages cripple Kalakamati pump station:
The scheme is also marred by power supply challenges for Kalakamati pumps (2 duty and one standby) resulting in use of genset during peak hours, Mmegi can reveal. This follows a project which was commissioned by BPC in Feb/March 2022, but thereafter experienced system shortfall/instability and it was taken offline for remedial works.
BPC is currently upgrading their substation at Sebina to ensure a security of supply to this pump station, according to the document which further opines that this snag impacts the availability of two duty pumps during operation.
The pump station feeds water to Mbalambi Tank, which is currently operating below capacity as a result of the challenges faced by the Kalakamati pumps.
Mmegi can further reveal that the scheme is also unable to realise enough water flows from Moroka pump station that simultaneously feeds the villages of Senyawe, Butale, Ramokgwebana and Jack No. 1. The four villages can only realise water supply by augmenting with supplies from village boreholes or through water supply rationing, according to the document seen by Mmegi.
Despite the installation of dedicated pumps that should ensure adequate water supply to the above mentioned areas, the report says the pump system has not met its intended objective since the pump station was commissioned.
The document further seems to fault the project management consultants and contractor as somewhere it says equipment performance testing and optimisation of the scheme was not carried out during commissioning. “Due to this project flaws, it is evident that some of deficiencies experienced now could have been addressed during the exercise and to ensure optimal benefits of the scheme are realised.”
But Unik Construction Engineering General Manager, Yun Sun vehemently disagrees that his equipment performance testing and optimisation was not carried out.
He says it is a requirement that every equipment procured goes through the F.E.T process, and that the project consultant sees to that.
Yun acknowledges that his company is currently doing some remedial works on the scheme, but says those remedial works are limited to telemetry issues at a couple of sites.
The Unik Construction General Manager further says his company upgraded 13 tanks, among others, and was not responsible for the distribution of water.
“The electricity challenges which seem to be affecting the performance of tanks and delivery of water to villages, only the BPC can resolve that. We were not responsible for that aspect of the project. We cannot answer for the water distribution challenges on the scheme that was not our area,” Yun told Mmegi.
On the issue of the commissioned scheme still running short of satisfying the region’s water demands despite the upgrade, Yun says his company was given specific tanks and pumps to upgrade to a certain capacity, which they satisfied without fail, adding that if more capacity outside what was given is needed, Unik Construction will be willing to engage.“
For his part, Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) Technical Services Director, Mtshambiwa Moathodi said the contractor remains to monitor all the new infrastructure until the end of the defect liability period.
However, the WUC official defended the new infrastructure at the North East and Tutume Sub District, saying they were designed to meet the projected year 2040 demand.
This is despite a post comissioning findings that the water scheme upgrades designs may have drastically under estimated the water demands of the region.
So serious is the problem that two new treatment plants have been proposed for the scheme in the next financial year as a response to the shortcomings of the current water scheme.