BY PHESHEYA IAN KUNENE
NDZINGENI – The Somile Mashobane Water Scheme will see each homestead being allocated 300 litres of water per day.
While speaking during the official handover ceremony held at Ndzingeni Inkhundla yesterday (Thursday, November 21, 2024), under Umphakatsi of Bulandzeni, Nhlanhla Sithole from Rural Water Supply branch under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, pledged their commitment in ensuring that the project can now equip residents with clean, safe and constant water supply in their homes.
He revealed that each homestead would be allocated at least 300 litres per day. He further revealed that 92 homesteads were expected to benefit directly from the E3.5 million project and one school by the name of Ekubongeni High School. The borehole, which is installed with state-of-art equipment including solar panels that are pumping the water into the built water reservoir, can sustain a population growth of 16 years.
In addition, Project Officer Wonder Mngometulu from Microprojects mentioned that the network of the water pipes servicing the Mashobane community would cover about 17 kilometres while adding that 35 water taps were installed along the roads within the community.
The project started last year in the Month of May, and cost E3.5 million to implement. It took five months to complete and had since been under the watchful eye of Microprojects in the defect liability period.
The community was congratulated for their workmanship and encouraged to work even harder to maintain it.
“Let us protect this project so that it delivers the intended service. This development is everyone’s responsibility to have it protected,” Sithole said.
tasked the community to think about rationing the water so that it can last them longer while also adding that it was vital for the water reservoir to always have water stored inside it. He further urged the water consumers who are part of the scheme to ensure paying for the service to help the committee serve better and maintain the project.
While speaking on behalf of the community, chiefdom Indvuna (herd man) Musa Tsabedze added that since the water was already available in the tanks, their role was now to use it wisely, be united in maintaining the project so that they can continue to enjoy clean and safe water.
Tsabedze mentioned that they are the ones who approached Microprojects reporting that the community had no access to water as they did not have existing boreholes, therefore they needed to work hard in protecting the project as Microproejcts trusted them with it.
