Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Roy Jankielsohn MPL and Sesotho soundbite by Jafta Mokoena MPL
The DA is concerned by the R320 million water pipeline project aimed at bringing water from Bethlehem to Fouriesburg and Mashaeng while cheaper options appear to be available. This project has been in the pipeline for many years and is becoming a pipedream, infringing on the rights of residents to have regular sourced safe water in their taps.
Issues have also been raised by landowners through whose properties this pipeline will be dug.
The project appears to be designed to milk taxpayers since there are cheaper options available due to Fouriesburg and Mashaeng being a few kilometres away from both the Small Caledon and Caledon rivers. It has been estimated by the local community that a weir on the Small Caledon River could supply Fouriesburg and Mashaeng with water for approximately R10 million.
In reply to questions to MECs of COGTA in the Free State Legislature it was indicated that the Caledon Abstraction Point was allocated R6 million and the pipeline project R40 million in the 2020/21 financial year. The pipeline project was projected to be completed in 2025 at a cost of R320 million, while a year from this completion date there is no evidence that this target will be met.
The water pump station and purification plant at Bethlehem are already struggling to supply local residents with water and will require major upscaling to supply Fouriesburg and Mashaeng with water via a pipeline with the necessary pressure.
While residents of Fouriesburg and Mashaeng continue to have limited and irregular access to water, various levels of government appear to be unsure about the funding sustainability within the current financial constraints of government.
The DA will ask questions in the Legislature and Parliament about the R46 million that was allocated and presumably spent on this project.