By Neo Kolane
It’s been five months since CICOM – a water supply coordinating committee in the four villages in the Quthing district closed their offices amid suspicions of mismanagement of up to M6 million in project funds meant for water supply.
The villages are Mount Moorosi, Ha Koali, Ha Sekhonyana and Namolong.
The CICOM started in 2010 but came to an abrupt halt in December 2021. Although the water supply has not ceased, residents have since stopped paying for maintenance and new connections.
The aim of CICOM was to facilitate easy access to water for the villagers. Its intention was for water supply to be brought closer to the villagers so that they could enjoy the novelty of domestic water connections by the Rural Water Supply department.
As part of the initiative, every beneficiary household and business was to pay a monthly standing fee of M10 and M20, respectively towards a maintenance fund.
Prior to this, residents of these villages did not have access to running water and had to walk long distances to fetch water from wells.
Members of the coordinating committee are elected every two years. In keeping with this tradition, a new committee was elected in 2018 but it never quite came into office.
A member of this committee Ntahle Mabitle, says complication arose when the outgoing committee had to formally hand over to the new committee.
“When we met at the district administrator’s office, we asked questions regarding the financial status of the project. The old committee said there was no money in the project’s coffers, and that this had resulted in the suspension of new water connections and maintenance works. It is worth noting that there are people who had already paid M1,800 for to have taps installed in the homesteads. Then emerged rumours that the outgoing committee had spent project money on sittings. An audit had been instituted which revealed there were no receipts to account for the committee’s spending. In short, the books were in shambles. Even the auditor did not sign his report. There is only one signature, that of the chairperson of outgoing committee.
“In a strange twist of event, the outgoing chairperson promised to get the auditor to cast light on the financial discrepancies, but this never happened. Three months later, members of the new committee entered office on the invitation of the outgoing chairperson who had offered to show them the ropes.
“That’s when Mount Moorosi resolved to stop making further payments. The result of this is that there are taps that have been installed but do not have water. Two members of the old committee are said to have made off with up to M6-million. It is not clear what steps the committee took against to make them account for the theft,” Mabitle said.
He related that chaos erupted last year when aggrieved communities were told they still had to pay for using the water.
“The community members now want the intervention of the minister of water,” Mabitle said.
The chief of Mount Moorosi, Maoeng Masheane confirmed the community of Ha Sekhonyana ended up not paying for their services, leading to the project becoming moribund.
He explained that the villagers have indeed become unwilling to pay for the water and, as a result, those who had hoped to receive connections cannot do so.
“The community members stopped paying their water bills. The service provided was primarily water connection.
“The service stopped. Luckily the heavy rainfalls have contributed positively but if drought comes, we are going to have a big problem. The water bill is still accumulating for people living at Mount Moorosi,” Masheane said.
He said CICOM is silent about the matter.
He said some of the community members claim that water in Mount Moorosi does not need to be purified so it should not be paid for.
“If any of the pipes burst we do not know who will replace them because we do not know the contractor who installed them,” Masheane said.
Masheane said he invited CICOM to a meeting but none of the committee members showed up.
When asked about the M6-million that allegedly went missing, Masheane did not want to delve into the matter as he did not have the evidence to support the claim. He added that, for now, that remains a rumour.
The community liaison officer of Rural Water Supply in Quthing Nobandu Jason confirmed that indeed the CICOM offices in Quthing had closed down.
Jason said some of the members of the new committee resigned and did not assume office.
“We, therefore, realised that is best to close the office. It was obvious that the new committee had been rendered a lame duck.”
Jason said she knew nothing about the M6-million that allegedly went missing. “The communities were not able to pay members who were part of CICOM. Secondly, the community members were not paying their water bills; and lastly, the person who would read household meters was met with hostility and could not perform his job.”
