Giyani: Cabinet has commended the significant progress in the Giyani Water Services Project, which is currently at 90.23% completion, with the remaining work consisting of pressure testing and commissioning. The Giyani Water Services Project involves the construction of 325 km of bulk pipelines from the Giyani Water Treatment Works (WTWs) to include service reservoirs to supply clean water to 55 villages in and around Giyani, Limpopo.
According to South African Government News Agency, Minister in The Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, briefed the media on the outcomes of the Cabinet meetings held on Tuesday, 22 July 2025, and Wednesday, 06 August 2025. The update on the implementation progress of the Giyani Water Intervention Programme reveals that the project is expected to be completed by September 2025. Phase 1 of the Giyani 55 Villages Reticulation Project, which involved reticulation and household metered connections for 24 villages, has been completed in 23 of the villages, with the remaining village, Risinga View Village, to be completed by the end of July 2025.
Phase 2a, which involves reticulation and metered household connections to 15 villages, is scheduled for the 2025/26 financial year, while Phase 2b, covering 16 villages, is planned for the outer year of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). The upgrade of the Giyani WTWs from 30Ml/d to 40Ml/d and the development of well fields to ensure sufficient water supply to the 55 villages are in the planning stage, with implementation expected in the third quarter of the current financial year, once the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is finalized.
The Minister expressed hope that this would be the last intervention by the Department of Water and Sanitation in Giyani to improve water supply to the 55 villages and the town. Significant interventions that laid the foundation for the current progress include the Nandoni-Nsami Bulk Pipeline, a 40.5 km raw water pipeline from Nandoni Dam in Vhembe, which became functional on 5 April 2023 and was practically completed in December 2023. It currently supplies Giyani WTWs with an average of 15Ml/d of raw water.
Additionally, the refurbishment of Giyani WTWs restored the plant’s original production capacity to 30Ml/d, completed in June 2024, after it had fallen to 13-17Ml/d. “The completed projects cost an estimated R6 billion, funded by the Department of Water and Sanitation,” Ntshavheni stated.