The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo cautiously welcomes the recent appointment of Dr Ndweleni Mphephu as the Chairperson of the board of Lepelle Northern Water (LNW).
LNW is currently providing bulk water in only 42% of its mandated 80 000 square kilometres.
The DA ascribes these service provision challenges directly to LNW’s poor management and financial delinquency over the last decade.
The most infamous example is the project to supply water to the Giyani area.
The R3.5 billion project was intended to supply water to Giyani and surrounding villages but for the past 8 years, 50 villages around Giyani have had no clean drinking water. Currently, residents have to walk for up to 5 km to carry contaminated water back to their houses.
Allegations of corruption and irregular expenditure plagued the project from the start and it’s clear the Department of Water and Sanitation has failed the people of Giyani. LNW’s mandate was the implementation of the regional bulk infrastructure, operations and maintenance thereof.
The General House Survey (GHS) for 2019 released by STATSSA late in December 2020, revealed that over the last 18 years, access to piped water declined from 73.8% in 2002 to 70% in 2019. This means that 30% of the 1621 000 households in Limpopo do not have access to piped water.
The DA is further concerned that the Auditor-General highlighted the R341 million water losses in the 2018/2018 the Consolidated Local Government Report.
The DA wish Dr Mphephu well in his new role and we hope that he will tackle poor financial management, corruption, project delays and expand LNW’s water supply to 100% of LNW’s mandated area. Access to water is after all a fundamental human right.