Billions needed for water

CAPRICORN MUNICIPALITY: RATINGS OF 4 WATERWORKS REGARDED AS CRITICAL, HIGH RISK Regression of water quality is concern – DA.

Capricorn district municipality in Limpopo’s will need more than R3.2 billion for the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant, regional water schemes and for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of its infrastructure.

This is according to a report by the department of water and sanitation, which said Capricorn – with a population of nearly 1.5 million – has a blue drop status of 38.1%, much lower than the required 95%. The rating has dropped from 71.9% in 2014.

Four of the municipality’s assessed waterworks are regarded as critical and ranked high risk: Alldays (scored 19.15%); Botlokwa (21.18%); Mogwadi (4.75%); and Senwabarwana (12%).

The Democratic Alliance (DA) was the first to fire a salvo. “The regression of the quality of drinking water is of a serious concern, as a cholera outbreak is a real threat to residents,” DA councillor Tiny Ramathabatha Chidi said recently.

In the 2023-24 financial year, the municipality budgeted R262 000 for water safety plans and spent R229 470, Chidi said.

A further R200 000 was budgeted for water quality monitoring and sampling, and R105 000 for disinfection chemicals. Only R104 226 was spent. “We plan to conduct oversights to the worst-affected areas [and] will also, as a matter of urgency, call on the Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu to place this municipality under regulatory focus.”

The municipality said there were instances when some test results of certain boreholes were not of the required quality.

“Due to limitation of budgets, the municipality could not recruit enough personnel, such as process controllers and artisans, to take up effective operations of the water quality systems,” said Capricorn spokesperson Jabu Masondo.

“Furthermore, due to aging infrastructure, the municipality experienced high water losses.”

The municipality had R407 million to cover wastewater, new water schemes, operations, maintenance and the procurement of treatment consumables, but that was not enough. It would “make provision of additional R15 million during budget adjustment in February”, he added.