Mahikeng - The North West is committed to providing clean and adequate drinking water to all the people of the province, Premier Job Mokgoro said on Friday.
"I can guarantee this august house and the people of this province that no cent earmarked for water provision will be redirected elsewhere, as we saw when monies intended for provision of bulk water services were illegally invested by some municipalities into the new defunct VBS Mutual Bank," he said during his state of the province address.
He said the provincial government was serious when it said it was going to resolve the water crisis in the province and that projects were already underway following funding allocations.
The Taung/Naledi bulk water service scheme has been allocated R60 million, R61,6 million has been allocated for the Greater Mamusa bulk water service scheme, Madibeng bulk water was given R40 million, the Moretele South bulk water service scheme R18,2 million, while the Koster waste water treatment works upgrade received R40 million. The Ratlou bulk water service scheme received R40 million, Mafikeng South bulk water service scheme R20 million and R20 million was set aside for the Tlokwe bulk water service scheme.
In addition, various municipalities received water services infrastructure grants and have started with projects.
Moretele and Rustenburg municipalities each received R88 million, the Moses Kotane municipality R55 million, and the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality R105 million. Madibeng municipality received R25 million, Kgetlengrivier R20 million and Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality R70 million.
A lack of technical capacity, governance and financial management in municipalities, vandalism of infrastructure and tankering as a means of water provision were some of the problems identified in the previous financial year and remedial action would be introduced in planning and implementation of the current programmes, he said.