Africa-Press – Botswana. Kanye Sanitation Project, initially scheduled for completion in October 2019, is now approaching finalisation.
The project was supposed to be completed within 48 months, including a 12-month defect liability period ending in October 2020.
Answering a parliamentary session on Tuesday, Minister of Water and Human Settlement, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi, provided an update on the project’s progress.
He stated that while the original timeline has been extended, the ministry was now aiming to complete the project by the end of 2025.
“Currently, the construction progress stands at 98.8 per cent. Most components, including the treatment works, are operational, and the institutions connected to the system are using it,” Minister Ramogapi said
He assured that the remaining works were expected to be completed by the end of September 2025, signaling the nearing conclusion of a project that had faced delays but was now on track to serve the Kanye community.
He said some factors that contributed to delay of the project were the underestimation of the hard rock around the project area that emanated from the Geotechnical Investigation Report of January 2007 conducted by Africon Botswana from May 8 to June 26 in 2006.
The minister said the consultant made trial pits and concluded that the gross estimation of the quantities of rocks in the project site was eight per cent.
“It was discovered that the consultant erred by not sampling deep enough. Their trial pits did not go beyond five-meter 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 range of 80 per cent to 90 per cent,” he said.
Mr Ramogapi said 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.
Mr Ramogapi said the other contributing factor was lack of access to site due to properties encroaching the pipelines servitude. He said the project area was within unplanned layouts that made the pipe route difficult to transverse within the build-up without acquiring land from the affected 1098 plots.
“The prolonged property acquisitions to pave way for the pipeline affected the progress,” he said. Mr Ramogapi observed that the construction contract was awarded to a citizen owned company, Estate Construction on August 10, 2015 at the cost of P707 046 930.32.
He however said the factors mentioned resulted in escalation of costs of over P3, 350, 327, 380.69, adding that around P24.3 million had been used to pay for compensation of affected property owners to date.
Mr Ramogapi said the other progress made was that part of the sanitation scheme was in operation and a total of 729 connections to customers have been made.
He said commissioning of the remaining parts of the scheme awaited delivery completion of repair works for Pump Station 3, which had pumps damaged during commissioning.
Mr Ramogapi said the repair works for the pump station was expected to be complete in August 2025. He said a total of 436.35km of pipelines have been laid while 22.2 km was remaining.
The remaining pipelines, he said, were due to several portions skipped as a result of prolonged property acquisitions to pave way for the pipeline route and that of the slow progress due to blasting of hard rock within buildup areas in Ntsweng and Mafikana.
Mr Ramogapi said Kanye Network Distribution Project was implemented in phases on account of budget limitations. He said the first phase of the project was the emergency works with the objective of optimising the existing water distribution network in Kanye.
The minister said it addressed 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.
Mr Ramogapi said current interventions to address water shortage to hard hit areas were through water bowsing. He said Phase II of the project, which covered the remaining rehabilitation works and expansion of water reticulation networks to new areas would form part of the National Development Plan 12 and the works would consist of additional water pipework, pump station and telemetry as well as Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition to automate the works covering the whole of Kanye.
Minister Ramogapi was responding to a question from Kanye East MP, Mr Prince Mosanana who wanted to know when the Kanye Sanitation Project would be completed.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
