Residents of Louis Trichardt, especially in the new part of town, have been suffering due to interrupted water supply for months on end.

The building of a second reservoir at Mowkop, with a capacity of 10 megaliters of water, raised the hopes of continuous water supply. It seems that some more patience is needed.

The project was originally scheduled to be completed in June last year and then the time granted was extended by four months. August 18 last year came and went and still the concrete walls and the columns of the reservoir were not completed and the concrete roof and miscellaneous works were outstanding.

The Vhembe District Municipality has now officially stated that “the service of the contractor was terminated due to slow progress … and the engineers are currently busy with re-tendering.” The spokesperson for the Vhembe District, Mr Ndivuho Mamathuba, confirmed that the contract of NW Civils had been terminated and that a new contractor had not yet been appointed. The questions were forwarded on March 13 this year and the undated answers were received on May 11.

The whole scope of the work entailed earthworks, fencing, a concrete ring beam, a concrete base slab, concrete columns, concrete walls, roofing, inlet and outlet connection and miscellaneous works. The previous contractor completed the earthworks, the ring beam, 60% of the columns, three lifts of concrete walls and the inlet connection. The contract period for the remainder of the work that the contractor left unfinished still has to be determined.

The Vhembe District Municipality answered negatively to the question whether there were factors delaying the process. Once the reservoir is completed, more water will be stored and distributed.

“There will be more water in the system, hence another big storage [facility] is needed,” states the district municipality.