BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– In the financial year 2022-2023, the Government, working in collaboration with partners, successfully completed water projects to the value of E51.9M.
This was revealed by the Prime Minister Cleopas Sipho Dlamini when presenting the summarised report of the week-long Cabinet Retreat that officially ended with the presentation session.
According to the PM, the water project benefitted 15 515 people in different parts of the country, he further mentioned that this year, the government has planned new potable water projects to the value of E298.05 Million which will benefit 845 620 people.
When speaking about this, Mpolonjeni Indvuna Sabelo Hadzebe said they had benefitted from government water project. Hadzebe said Mpolonjeni community and ‘Umphakatsi’ formed part of the group that they get water from the government.
“I would confirm that my community has always been part of the water scheme and some part of the community has been on the electricity scheme, it has been a wonderful journey between us and the government,” said Hadzebe.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister mentioned that through the support of the World Bank, they have been developing a national potable water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) master plan to guide the planning of water projects in the country.
“In terms of rural electrification, the Government successfully developed E142.3M worth of group schemes benefitting 6 142 households in the year 2022/2023. This year, working in collaboration with partners and through projects such as the Rural Access Electricity Fund and the Shiselweni Network Reinforcement and Access Project (NRAP), Government hopes to fund more schemes,” he said.
In addition to that, he said Eswatini currently consumes 245MW of power a year, of which only 10 percent is generated locally and 90 percent is imported.
Dlamini said it was important now, more than ever, for the country to improve its own power generation capacity.
“This is why we are happy about pipeline projects such as the 75MW Solar PV Project and the 40MW Biomass Project, which will help the country to secure a base-load power capacity and reduce our reliance on imports,” he said. In addition to that Dlamini said other projects that they were also looking forward to; include the 33MW Maguga Hydro Project and 13MW Lower Maguduza Hydro Project, among others.
