02 Apr 2025

 Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) has developed ‘stop-gap’ measures to alleviate water reticulation problem at Maratanang, Letlapeng and Maratadiba wards.

Responding to a question in Parliament, Assistant Minister of Water and Human Settlement Mr Motsamai Motsamai noted that the corporation had installed seven communal prepaid public standpipes in Letlapeng ward as a short term intervation.  Maratadiba ward does not have any standpipes since it is a newly allocated area which is not fully built-up, according to Mr Motsamai.  He said if installed, the standpipes could have been highly susceptible to vandalism and misuse.

On the installation, he said village leadership and WUC often agreed on the positioning of the standpipe whenever built-up areas could form enough cluster to warrant the provision of a public standpipe. The assistant minister also explained that the plots  at Letlapeng and Maratadiba wards were allocated to residents with no land-servicing infrastructure. However, Mr Motsamai said Maratanang ward was fully provided with water reticulation network with water supply connections to most homesteads.

As a long term intervention,  he said rehabilitation and expansion of potable water network in Tlokweng would be considered during NDP 12. On the possibility of facilitating customers willing to connect their homes to water reticulation system using the syndicate model, Mr Motsamai said WUC did not have any policy or legal framework to do so. He said the corporation was nonetheless, considering a suitable model with its associated regulations that could be used for water reticulation system using the syndicate model.

It is therefore, important to have a clear framework on the obligations of each party and the transfer of infrastructure to WUC as well as how to deal with the connection of new customers who are not members of the syndicate, said Mr Motsamai.

MP for Tlokweng, Mr Phenyo Segokgo had asked if the minister was aware of the water reticulation problem at Maratanang, Letlapeng and Maratadiba wards. ENDS