Project Profile
The Metsi Bophelo Borehole Project (MBBP) is designed to make safe drinking water accessible to poor rural communities in a sustainable manner, with a broader goal to improve the communities’ health and livelihoods. The project comprises rehabilitation of existing dysfunctional boreholes and, where there are no existing boreholes, the project involves the siting, sinking, and equipping of new boreholes. Further, the project involves the design and construction of storage facilities and distribution infrastructure. The project covers six provinces: Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West. The outputs of the project cover an extensive area involving 19 district municipalities and a population in excess of 260 000 people.
Funding
The MBBP is a Ministerial Project fully funded by Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) from the Director-General’s Discretionary Fund. The total funding under the current project scope is R26 million.
Engineering
TCTA appointed three joint venture entities, namely: Mokolo Crocodile Consultants, BKS (Pty) Limited and Aurecon-Ndodana JV to provide engineering consultancy services. The consultants will be responsible for assessing existing boreholes; conducting geo-hydrological assessments; siting and sinking new boreholes; conducting yield and water quality tests; equipping the boreholes; and designing and supervising the construction of storage and reticulation infrastructure.
Socio-economic development objectives
Capacity building
A vital element of the project is to develop sound borehole operation and maintenance capacity within the project communities. This is intended to ensure sustainable management of the completed water supply infrastructure.On its part, TCTA, through the Corporate Social Responsibility fund of the organization, provided support to post-completion training for the operators and key stakeholders in and around each project area.
Environmental
DWS was responsible for the relevant environmental approvals related to the project. Further, TCTA, in collaboration with its specialist consultants, oversees the implementation of the environmental requirements on-site to safeguard environmental fundamentals.
Key challenge
The fundamental challenge associated with the project is the huge number of communities requiring improved access to (ground) water supply, vis-à-vis the limited budget available. As a result, the prioritization of target communities becomes an important element of the project.
