The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) Mpumalanga Provincial Office hosted a three-day national monitoring and evaluation workshop under the Water Services Infrastructure Development Grant (WSIDG) Programme led by Ms Lerato Mokoena from DWS head office from 16 to 18 May 2022. The workshop is the first contact session in two years since the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020.
Mpumalanga Province was chosen to host this important national workshop based on its ability as the region to implement projects in line with the requirements, guideline of the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant framework and better performance recorded during project implementation over the past two years.
The monitoring and evaluation workshop focused on assessing, reporting and evaluation of projects implementation, funding requirements and compliance of municipalities to statuary requirements of the grants, status of provincial / regional projects and challenges encountered in the implementation of projects. The workshop is an information sharing session where best practises are shared for the smooth implementation of projects in the different provinces.
As part of the workshop, the delegates also go on a site visit to assess work and progress on the ground, as a result the Empuluzi / Methule Bulk Water Supply project in Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality was visited. The project entails the construction of a 5 ml/d water treatment works as well as the upgrading of the Mayflower water treatment works by 7ml/d in order to ensure sustainable water supply for the next 20 years.
The project implementation includes the building of infrastructure under the auspices of two grants managed by the department: Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) and Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG). Currently the Department budget for the two grants amount to R11.7 billion in the current year of which Mpumalanga gets R1.8 billion of the allocation.
In his welcoming address, the Provincial Head of DWS Mpumalanga, Mr Fikile Guma advised the delegates to learn from the Mpumalanga team and not compete against each other. He also stated that the Provincial Office was prepared to make limited human resources available to assist when required by other provincial offices to ensure that the Department achieves its goals and delivers on its mandate. He further acknowledged the presence of the Limpopo Provincial Head, Ms Lucy Kobe who attended in order to learn more from the region considered to be her neighbour. He further encouraged other Provincial Heads to emulate Limpopo Provinces by attending such workshops to improve project implementation and service delivery in their respective provinces.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Mpumalanga is doing well in terms of projects implementation, with the highlights being the completion of the construction of the Methula water treatment works in Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality wherein a new conventional plant with a 5ml/d capacity has been completed, the completion of the upgrading of the Masibekela water treatment works to supply the area of Sibange including a bulk pipeline to Ntunda / Skhwahlane in the Nkomazi Local Municipality and the completion of the bulk water infrastructure in Davel in Msukaligwa Local Municipality.
Mr Andre van Der Walt from Sanitation Services emphasised the importance of the eradication of the bucket system.
The key highlights of the workshop include the integration of DWS interventions with municipalities to deal with issues of pollution in order to improve on Green Drop ratings and the sharing of best practices to improve the supply of quality water to communities.
