Hope restored as water to reach Tswapong villages
Hearing President Mokgweetsi Masisi tell the nation that the construction of a pipeline bringing water from the north-south carrier to several villages in the Tswapong area is nearing completion has brought hope to the affected communities.
Kgosi Kelapile Maleele of Tumasera, one of the affected villages tells The Midweek Sun that his people have been suffering for months.
“It has been months and months of a dry spell, we have been surviving through bowsers because the borehole feeding the village was said to be broken. It took a long time for it to be fixed,” Maleele said.
Maleele explained that the little water that was being brought to them through bowsers was never enough for members of the community.
“They would gather at the water tanks in large numbers, the fortunate would go home with some water while others returned empty-handed. It has been a very frustrating situation,” he said.
At some of the public water tanks found in the village, this publication
found some empty buckets and water storage containers lined up waiting for the time when bowsers would arrive to fill in the water.
Villagers waiting for the water shared their past and present experiences, also expressing delight that things were really promising as taps were beginning to show life.
Meanwhile, Kgosi Maleele is happy that things are finally looking up and taps are not so dry anymore.
“It seems they managed to fix the problem because for the past few days we have been having water. We can now hope that as per the president’s promise, the pipeline being installed will soon be in operation. I sometimes worry if it will be anytime soon or we still have a long way to go before it gets operational,”
Maleele said.
Member of Parliament (MP) for Sefhare Ramokgonami Kesitegile Gobotswang said the hard-hit villages in the area are Seleka, Tumasera, Ramokgonami, and Maape.
“The borehole they depend on has been dysfunctional for close to three months, the situation is made worse by occasional vandalism of the pipeline by some residents around Ramokgonami lands areas,” Gobotswang said.
He added that when such happens, Sesholo Junior Secondary School in Tumasera and Mokobeng School in Mokobeng are the worst affected among other schools.
The MP said people around the area mostly use pit latrines, even in schools because there is no water for a flush toilet system.