01 Jul 2014

There are many development projects going on in Palapye and obviously the place is bound to become one of the major towns in the country, especially because of its location along the A-1 road.

For a long time, the Morupule coal mine and Morupule A power station were the biggest employers in Palapye and over the years they contributed significantly to economic growth in the area.

In the last few years, more and more developments have been coming to Palapye which gradually changed the economic prospects of the coal mining area.

Currenly Palapye boasts of a number of multi-million Pula development projects, among them the Morupule B power station, Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), a steel factory, a new police station and BHC houses.

These projects will not only create employment for the local community but also lead to a significant increase in the population of Palapye, which currently stands at 41 000 according to the 2011 population census. Palapye is clearly headed for exponential growth and development.

However, the question remains whether Palapye has enough infrastructure and other social amenities to support these developments. Palapye senior assistant council secretary, Mr Koti Kolefi, said the council is faced with the mammoth task of ensuring that there is enough infrastructure development to meet the needs of the fast growing town.

“We need roads, water reticulation, waste water reticulation and electrification. The population of Palapye is growing very fast and we should be able to provide services that match its growth. We need more tarred access roads to connect households and address the problem of congestion during peak hours,” he said.

He also revealed that for these objectives to be achieved there need to be a collective effort at Sub-district Development Committee level, which comprises government departments and parastatals.

The biggest problem, said Mr Kolefi, was that the council has no funds to construct new access roads or tar existing roads because the only funds available will be used for maintenance of existing roads.

He added that Botswana was hit hard by the global financial crunch in 2008 which eroded the country’s revenue and affected the development budget. “The Palapye sub district council suffered a serious blow and ended up deferring some projects,” he said.

He further revealed that the Palapye sub council is under the central district council, which comprises seven sub district councils that all compete for meagre resources.

Despite the limited resources at its disposal, the Palapye Sub-council plans to open up more access roads and pave them, because paving is much cheaper than tarring.

He also revealed that the ongoing infrastructure development projects at Extension 11 in Palapye have a component of roads that will also feed into the town’s road network.

The project, which will be completed by April 2016, entails construction of 69.8km of roads and storm water drainage, 55km of water reticulation, 57km of sewer reticulation and offsite works which include a sewer pipeline outfall, pump station, access road and junction into A1 road.

“When this road is completed there will be three main access roads from the A1 road into Palapye, which will ease traffic flow,” said Mr Kolefi. He also revealed that the council managed to secure about P3.3 million, with the support of BIUST, to pave the road from Khurumela to the university.

He said the dusty road was paved because it posed a serious health hazard to the residents of Boseja ward. Mr Kolefi said he greatly appreciates the support of BIUST and called on other stakeholders to come on board and help the council to build infrastructure in Palapye.

He said Palapye is growing fast especially because of BIUST, which poses a challenge for the council to provide services at the same rate.

In the last sub council meeting, BIUST vice chancellor Prof. Hillary Inyang challenged the council to construct more access roads to accommodate the growing population of Palapye. ENDS