New Chris Hani directorate for water services

CHRIS Hani District Municipality has introduced a special water services directorate that will be responsible for ensuring revenue is collected.

Mayor Kholiswa Vimbayo said they wanted to improve water services provision and function, and forge ways of partnering with local municipalities.

She said the new directorate would start operating from July and would use already existing staff who had been absorbed recently.

“If we need to improve the system, we need to get a directorate which will be responsible for water provision so that there is one directorate that is responsible for the provision of water alone,” said Vimbayo.

She said the municipality already had a directorate of planning and infrastructure, but water provision needed a special directorate as well.

“Government grants are shrinking and as municipalities, we are encouraged to collect revenue in order to improve services.

“In water services, we buy bulk water from the department of water services, build treatment plants and clean the water,” she explained.

Vimbayo said the process was costly and if people did not pay for the service, the situation would not improve.

“We need to increase revenue collection and deal with queries on accounts and statements.

“We also need to resolve the issue of data cleansing,” said Vimbayo.

The district authority’s engineering head Siyabulela Zangqa said there was a need to strengthen the system so that people did not sit for more than 24 hours without water. “We need to do a skills audit of our staff so that we have a plan on how we can bridge the skills gap.”