Minister Ramogapi apologises for delayed project

Minister of Water and Human Settlement, Onneetse Ramogapi has apologised to residents of Kanye on behalf of the Ministry for taking more time than planned to complete the Kanye Sanitation project that was supposed to take 48 months of construction.The planned completion date was October 2019 followed by Defect Laibility Period of 12 months (October 2020). He said the Ministry is intending to complete the Kanye Projects this financial year.“The Kanye sanitation project is at the tail end of construction, progress is currently at 98.8 percent and most of the components including the treatment works are now in operation with the institutions connected to the system. The remaining works are targeted to be completed by end of September 2025. The Ministry is alive to the factors that contributed to the delay of the project and to mention the few,” said the minister.According to the minister, the underestimation of the hard rock around the project area emanated from the Geotechnical Investigation Report of January 2007 conducted by Africon Botswana from 8th May to 26th June 2006. Ramogapi stated that the consultant made trial pits and concluded that the gross estimation of the quantities of rocks in the project site was eight percent. “It was discovered that the consultant erred by not sampling deep enough. Their trial pits did not go beyond five meters depth as majority of the pipes were laid at that depth. Further investigation that was carried out during construction revealed that the gross estimation of the quantities of rocks was in the arrange of 80 percent to 90 percent,” Ramogapi told Parliament this week.Ramogapi was responding to a question from MP for Kanye East, Prince Mosanana who asked the minister to state when the Kanye sanitation project will be completed; and when the Kanye rehabilitation for potable water pipes is going to be completed and what measures are in place to avoid future inconveniences.He revealed that the increase in rock quantities required the increase import of soft materials for backfilling as the excavated material was not suitable for the same. The materials, he said were also obtained from alternative sources requiring longer haulage distance due to suspension of sand mining in the southern part of the country and the closure of Moshaneng Quarry.The minister stated that the other contributing factor was lack of access to site due to properties encroaching the pipelines servitude. Further, that the project area is within the unplanned layouts that made the pipe route difficult to transverse within the buildup without acquiring land from the affected 1098 plots. He added that the prolonged property acquisitions to pave way for the pipeline affected progress.“The construction contract was awarded to a Citizen owned company, Estate Construction (Pty) Ltd on 10th August 2015 at P707,046,930.32. The factors mentioned resulted in cost escalation to over P3 billion. To date around P24.3 million has been used to pay for compensation of affected property owners. Continuing with progress made, part of the sanitation scheme is now in operation, a total ofseven hundred and twenty-nine (729) connections to customers have been made,” said the minister.Ramogapi pointed out that commissioning of the remaining parts of the scheme awaits delivery completion of repair works for pump station 3 which had pumps damaged during commissioning. He explained that the repair works for the pump station are expected to be completed in August 2025. He indicated that a total of 436.35 km of pipelines have been laid and 22.2 km is remaining. He highlighted that the remaining pipelines are due to several portions skipped as a result of prolonged property acquisitions to pave way for the pipeline route and slow progress due to blasting of hard rock within buildup areas in Ntsweng and Mafikana.“Kanye Network Distribution Project is implemented in phases on account of budget limitations. The first phase of the project is the emergency works with the objective of reinforcing or optimising the existing water distribution network in Kanye. It is addressing low water pressure to no-water issues in 12 wards being Ntsweng, Mafhikana, Taukobong, Ditootso, Kebuang, Tloung, Goo-Kgano, Logaba, Kgwatlheng, Mathubapula, Mmamokhasi, Sethugetsane, Sekokotla, Kgwakgwe and Lodubeng.”

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Minister Ramogapi apologises for delayed project