Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa and North West Premier Thandi Modise are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding and a Project Implementation Plan to ease water shortages in North West municipalities.

The plan was adopted by provincial government, municipalities and water boards during a meeting on Tuesday. It is currently being finalised before the signing of the agreement in the next few days.

According to Lesiba Kgwele, spokesperson for the North West Premier, the plan which will be rolled out this year allocates R1.8 billion to be spent on bulk infrastructure upgrades and borehole refurbishments. The upgrades will provide various local municipalities with the capacity to meet the basic demand of 60 litres of water per person per day.

The projects laid out in the plan included, the development of a groundwater scheme in Mankwe and Madikwe; the replacement of old asbestos cement pipes that frequently burst; and providing water to water scarce areas.

This follows water outages in Mothutlung near Brits, North West which sparked protests that resulted in several deaths. Molewa said three local water pumps in the area broke down. Under normal circumstances, when one of the pumps fails the remaining two are supposed to keep operating. The same problem has been seen in three other areas.