04 Sep 2013

The demand for water in Palapye is expected to increase drastically due to upcoming development projects in the village.

Addressing a full council meeting on September 2, Palapye Administrative Authority chairman, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi said the projected demand for upcoming projects such as Morupule B power station, second university BIUST, new police station, glass factory, expansion of morupule coal mine and residential houses was eight million litres per day.

He said the nominal design capacity of the Palapye treatment plant was 14 million litres per day with a provision of overload rate of 16 million litres per day, with Palapye consuming about 50 per cent, while Serowe took 27 per cent while the rest augmented supply in surrounding villages.

The treatment plant was commissioned in 1999 as part of the North South Carrier Water Transfer Scheme (NSC1) and due to water challenges in Serowe a connection was constructed to supply the village.

He said it was expected that when the upgrading of Serowe internal infrastructure was complete, it should draw eight million litres from Palapye water works which would further put a strain to the available resources.

The combined projected demand for Serowe, Palapye and surrounding villages was estimated at 26 million per day which surpassed plant design capacity as such boreholes and treatment plant would have to be operated concurrent in order to meet the demand, leaving palapye with nothing to fall back on during emergency periods.

However, he said the situation is expected to improve in 2016 after the commissioning of the North South Carrier II which is currently under construction. Mr Ramogapi who is also councilor for Mmaphula ward said Water Utilities Corporation is operating an interconnected scheme to supply the villages of Lecheng, Matlhakola, Mokungwane, Goo-Sekgweng, Goo-Tau and Manaledi.

He said the combined demand of the villages is 475.2 cubic metres per day thus the borehole was yielding enough water to meet the demand.

The villages are connected to Lotsane water supply scheme. Malaka village, he said is supplied from one borehole situated in the village with a demand of about 54.1 cubic metres per day.

He said the demand of the village is satisfactorily met from the borehole while bowsing is done during the borehole breakdown. ENDS