DURBAN - THE Department of Water and Sanitation has committed R130 million to addressing the water challenges faced by the embattled Ugu District Municipality.
The money will be made available to address infrastructure challenges over the next two financial years.
The funding comes as the district municipality has battled to provide water to its residents for the past few years. There have been reports that some areas suffer constant, prolonged water shortages for days or weeks at a time.
There have also been allegations that some of the outages are caused by the sabotage of the municipality’s infrastructure which is considered fragile. The situation has been worsened by the recent floods that damaged infrastructure.
Businesses, especially those in the tourism sector, have been severely affected by the water outages.
DA MP Tim Brauteseth said they had been assured by the Water and Sanitation Department that the money had been made available to help the municipality address the water challenges.
The commitment was made in parliamentary replies to the party from the department after the DA had questioned what it was doing to assist the municipality in this crisis.
Department spokesperson Sputnik Ratau confirmed that the department had given the assurance in the replies and added that Minister Senzo Mchunu had indicated the same when he tabled his department budget before Parliament last week.
Brauteseth said that following the recent flooding that destroyed essential water and sanitation infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal, and the declaration of the State of Disaster in the province, the department had promised assistance.
“The Department of Water and Sanitation is providing assistance to the Ugu District Municipality in collaboration with other stakeholders in the provincial government. Grant funding allocated to the Ugu District Municipality through the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) for implementation of water infrastructure projects for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years is R130m.
“In the same response, the department committed to procuring 20 extra water tankers for the municipality, along with increased engineering services and national disaster funding as a result of the recent catastrophic KZN floods.
“The announcement of this WSIG is the culmination of years of fighting by the DA at municipal, provincial and national level to secure relief for the severe infrastructure challenges within Ugu.
“It is expected that this funding could also cover the upgrading of the Bhobhoyi Water Treatment Works,” Brauteseth said.
He said his party would continue to fight on behalf of Ugu’s residents for the restoration of a reliable water supply.
While tabling his budget, Mchunu also spoke of numerous projects that were being implemented to deliver water in the province.
He said the raising of the dam wall at Hazelmere Dam to ensure long-term water supply to eThekwini was 96% complete. The project is due to be completed in the third quarter of 2022 at a cost of about R800m.
The uMkhomazi Water Project is also aimed at delivering long-term additional water to the eThekwini region at a cost of R23 billion by 2028. The project is at pre-funding stage, and construction is expected to start in 2025.
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