DURBAN - UGU District Municipality needs R1 billion to rehabilitate its ageing water infrastructure that is causing frequent water outages on the KwaZuluNatal South Coast.
This financial year, the municipality has budgeted R30 million towards this function.
In a telephonic interview with The Mercury yesterday, Ugu mayor Sizwe Ngcobo laid bare the extent of the water challenges they face. These show the water insecurity could last for years. He said the municipality was working on solutions.
Water outages have been an ongoing problem for several years and raised the ire of frustrated residents and businesspeople in the area.
Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Ravi Pillay recently warned municipalities to address such issues, saying this was key to reviving the province’s economy.
He highlighted the impact that water outages had on the tourism industry in the South Coast town of Hibberdene recently, where guests were forced to leave because the area had no running water supply.
Ngcobo said Ugu needed R1bn just to replace its ageing infrastructure, including asbestos pipes that burst frequently.
“This financial year, we have budgeted about R30 million for that purpose,” he said. “We are talking to the national government on infrastructure. Some of the areas that continue to be affected by outages are coastal areas. We need to change the pipes but we just do not have the money.
“It is not just the issue of ageing infrastructure that is a challenge, we are also faced with an issue of water sources that have dried up,” he said.
He said another challenge was that their water infrastructure continues to be vandalised.
“Security is expensive, we cannot put security everywhere there is a pipe.”
Ngcobo urged residents to pay for water, saying their refusal to do so also contributed to the municipality’s inability to meet their water needs.
“We owe Umgeni and we owe eThekwini for water. We know that we have also made some mistakes with incorrect billing, and we are correcting that. We do not want to find ourselves in a situation where we are now taking people to court ( for non-payment),” he said.
He said they would be drilling boreholes in areas where there is no source or infrastructure.
“We want to pump (from these boreholes) to a reservoir where water will be reticulated.”
He said at least two dams would be built in the coming years, one scheduled for December.
DA councillor Leonard Ngcobo said the water outages were destructive to the tourism industry,
“Many in the tourism industry are hard hit, there are businesses that have closed down and we know there are no new businesses that are investing.
“People have been laid off and others have been put on short time. When guests come down and the area has no water, they cut their stay short.”
THE MERCURY