Despite the severe drought that has hit most parts of South Africa, Xanthia remains a success story as its water project nears 98% completion.

Ensconced in the rolling hills of Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga, the impoverished village boasts a successful water programme that prompted President Jacob Zuma and 13 Cabinet Ministers’s Siyahlola visit.

Xanthia is one of 25 villages in Bushbuckridge that are benefitting from the revamped Inyaka Water Treatment Works. The first phase of water supply in Xanthia (and several other villages) is almost complete and houses are receiving clean drinking water.

Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula  Mokonyane said more than 500 people now have work while others were trained as pipe welders and crane drivers. Another 800 job opportunities will be created through construction management.

Many local contractors from Bushbuckridge are now doing business to ensure that water is connected. These companies include Malo Contractors, Lemjo Sivuthumlilo JV, Seletje Construction and Management, Shirdo Trading, and many others.

“70% of the appointed contractors are local contractors. Furthermore, all appointed contractors have agreed to subcontract to smaller local contractors. Procurement of material has been restricted mainly to the Mpumalanga Province. All maintenance work is done in house and is no longer outsourced,” Minister Mokonyane reassured the community.

Overcoming challenges

However, the Minister said the project of supplying water in Bushbuckridge villages was not without challenges, the main one being the illegal connections to the bulk pipeline that supplies water from the revamped Inyaka Water Treatment Plant.

Ageing infrastructure was also mentioned as the problem, and was seen as an area which needed to be upgraded with immediate effect to ensure the sustainable supply of water to new villages, such as Xanthia.

“A preliminary assessment of the level of water use efficiency and the level of Non-Revenue Water (unaccounted for water) in the Inyaka Waste Water Treatment Works indicates that the total system losses are very high. It was estimated that the total system losses in the supply area of the Inyaka Waste Water Treatment Works is approximately 40% of the treated water production.”