‘Mr Water’ to rescue

MCHUNU: MINISTER DETAILS PLAN TO COUNTER COUNTRYWIDE SHORTAGES

Main problem of ageing infrastructure will be addressed by department.

Against a background of several dysfunctional municipalities lacking engineering expertise and operating with obsolete infrastructure, Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu – who yesterday tabled in parliament the department’s multibillion-rand budget for the 2022-23 financial year – told of his hands-on approach to service delivery, with senior officials deployed to assist at local government level.

This, as water shortages and sewage spillages continue to plague South Africa’s urban and rural communities.

Mchunu has conceded that these challenges have triggered him and his team of senior officials to crisscross the country in a bid to restore stability to troubled municipalities.

Mchunu said the department was allocated a combined budget of R111.256 billion over the medium-term expenditure framework, consisting of allocations of R34.976 billion, R37.331 billion and R38.958 billion in the 2022-23 and 2024-25 financial years, respectively.

Budget highlights include:

The Mzimvubu Water Project in the Eastern Cape, aimed at providing water to 750 000 people at R25 billion;

The building of a major pipeline from the Gariep Dam to augment water supply in Mangaung in the Free State – currently in the feasibility stage – at a cost of R10 billion.

Implementation of a R1.7 billion project to upgrade wastewater treatment works, water treatment works and distribution networks in the Maluti a Phofung area of the Free State;

An estimated R36 billion Phase 2 Lesotho Highlands Water Project, aimed at ensuring an adequate long-term water supply for Gauteng and the Vaal River System;

The uMkhomazi Water Project, aimed at delivering long-term additional water to the Ethekwini region at a cost of R23 billion by 2028; and

Thembisile-Loskop bulk-water supply project in Mpumalanga, aimed at addressing water supply challenges in the Thembisile Hani local municipality, costing R1.2 billion.

Painting a bleak picture for most municipalities on water and sanitation delivery, Mchunu said: “More than 99% of all municipalities in the country have conceded that they don’t have capacity, have ageing infrastructure which leaks more than 40% of water, and don’t have skills to turn things around.

“They have told us that they don’t have capacity to spend responsibly and accurately.

“The department has all along been focusing on bulk water services and not realising that you cannot have life from your head up to the middle of your body, with your feet not functional – hoping that you will be regarded as effective.

“As a department, we have been focusing on any other thing, but not reticulation – relegating that function to municipalities.

“Now, to a large extent, municipalities are dysfunctional.

“The only logical way is to intervene in a pragmatic and practical manner by working with municipalities.”

Citing Mangaung, he said the department identified six key projects in the Free State capital, “that will make it walk again – something which is not supposed to be our duty”.

Said Mchunu: “Once we bring bulk water, we would ordinarily leave. But we realised that we could not do so.

“We are beginning to do things in a unified chain – from bulk water to reticulation.

“We have also identified leaking pipes, so that we don’t merely supply water to leak over 40%.

“Their systems are also dysfunctional, because they don’t know how much water they give out – also not knowing who is paying and not paying.

“Municipalities don’t know how much water leaks.

“We are rehabilitating their systems from our office – auditing their pipes,” the minister told journalists.

We are rehabilitating systems from our office