Pretoria - On New Year’s Day last year, the horrific news of a body of a woman being retrieved from a crocodile infested Nandoni dam in Tshitomboni village, near Giyani, gripped newspaper headlines.
Lizzy Humbelani Mudzanani was attacked by the crocodile while bathing in the dam because of a lack of water at her home, just metres away from the dam.
For years, villagers in the Nandoni dam area have been devoured by the beasts because they often visited the dam for many reasons, such as bathing, washing of clothes or drinking.
The villagers in Giyani have now been given a reason to celebrate as a massive milestone has been reached.
More than 55 villages in that area will receive running tap water after nearly a decade of the government's promise to receive clean water in their taps.
This as the Nandoni-Nsami Bulk Water Pipeline Project reaches its practical completion, which will pave the way for residents to receive water in their taps.
This week, Limpopo’s water utility, Lepelle Northern Water, tested the process of releasing water through the 40.5km-long pipeline to deliver the much-needed resource to the people of Giyani.
Lepelle Northern Water board chairperson, Dr Nndweleni Mphephu, hailed the completion of the project as a major milestone on the path of renewal that the entity had embarked on little over two years ago when the new board was installed.
“The board and the Minister of Water and Sanitation (Senzo Mchunu) were all focused on completing the Giyani project.
“When he came, he focused on what needs to be done to conclude the project rather than focusing on the past, and as a board, we needed such an approach to be able to fast track the project.
“Right now, I am proud to say that the Nandoni/Nsami pipeline project is delivering water in the canal to Nsami Dam to augment it,” Mphephu said.
The Giyani bulk water project, which was meant to start about 10 years ago, was to provide clean running water into taps of 55 villages in Giyani in Mopani district of Limpopo by building a 320km pipeline that would access water from the Nandoni dam to connect with the villages.
But in 2018, following claims of corruption in the R3 billion project, former president Jacob Zuma commissioned the Special investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate the project since its launch in 2014.
Now the practical completion of the pipeline was recorded on August 31, with commissioning in progress, followed by the defects liability period of 12 months to commence once all snags have been attended to by the contractor.
The project entailed construction of two bulk water pipelines (500 and 800mm in diameter) to provide water to Giyani and the greater Malamulele areas, as well as the upgrade of the existing pump station at Nandoni Water Treatment Plant for bulk raw water transfer to the Nsami Canal.
The total extent of the pipeline includes both the 500mm diameter pipeline supplying water to the Giyani area and the 800mm diameter pipeline and its tributaries supplying water to Malamulele and surrounds.
Mphephu said that when he joined the water utility in 2021, he identified strategic and operational priorities which needed focused attention.
“The strategic priorities were, among others, focusing on our primary mandate, for instance bulk water provision because at the time it was marred by external projects, which is against the Water Services Act, and expanding the area of operation to cover the entire Limpopo province, especially areas where there were no services.
“To achieve these, it was critical that we look at the operational priorities, such as governance structure (reviewing the human resources, supply chain, financial, operational and project management gaps as well as close them accordingly),” Mphephu added.
Pretoria News