eThekwini's water woes a result of gross maintenance delays

Water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu has called on the eThekwini municipality to fast-track water supply projects and infrastructure maintenance.

Mchunu said the city failed to replace its water pipes by 2015 and the “punishment” of that is for it to accelerate the pace of water provision projects.

“We will all be painted as having failed to provide water while we have our dams full if you don’t rectify your mistakes,” he said.

Mchunu was speaking at a joint water Imbizo hosted by his department and the city at King Zwelithini stadium in Umlazi on Wednesday.

The imbizo sought to assess the current water provision challenges in the south Durban areas as well as other parts of the city.

Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said the reason southern areas like Umlazi, Folweni, KwaMakhutha and Chatsworth have recently experienced periods of water rationing was because the Durban Heights reservoir in Reservoir Hills, which supplies these areas through the southern aqueduct.

He said it  was not operating at full capacity. The dam is only operating through the side that is built of steel while they have halted operations to the building of a concrete structure. 

He said the city does not receive enough water to meet the demands of communities.

“We need an additional 400-million mega litres and that can not be produced from the dams we currently have. It will need to come from somewhere else.”

The supply shortfall is a result of aging infrastructure,  illegal water connections and water leaks, mostly coming from the constant emergence of new informal settlements, which are not budgeted for.

The municipality will need R110bn to address its supply challenge.

He said the city has budgeted over R2bn in the current financial year to the department of water in sanitation. “This will go towards repairing burst pipes, closing down leaks and everything in our power to provide our people with water," Mchunu said. 

As part of its effort to deal with ageing infrastructure, the city is working on replacing the southern aqueduct, which Kaunda said will cost over R1bn.

They have invested R50m for the design phase and will be working with Umngeni-Uthukela Water and other private investors in the remaining three phases.

Kaunda said everything was already in place for the 24km pipe and they have accelerated the period it will take to complete the work from 24 months to 12 months.

uMngeni-uThukela Water has entered into a short-term operation and maintenance contract with eThekwini Metro to prioritise waste water maintenance. As part of this agreement, uMngeni-uThukela Water will operate waste water works owned by eThekwini and two pump stations deemed critical, and this represents 90% of the effluent that the city treats.

Mchunu said some water problems experienced in some communities could have been resolved earlier had infrastructure maintenance been prioritied.

“The problems that we have currently can be resolved quite urgently and expeditiously if we go back to the basics. Our infrastructure has a life span, and we need to take serious care of it before it is too late. We must not allow our infrastructure to reach its life span,” he said.

“We need to act proactively to ensure that our house is in order. We are where we are because people are too relaxed at times and only react when there are problems.”

He commended Kaunda for committing to shorten the time it would take to repair infrastructure from two years to a year and urged him to encourage the council to do likewise in accelerating other projects.

“I’m happy that you’ve shown that you are capable of fast-tracking (projects), do it again.

“We need aggression and urgency in how we deal with water provision to our communities. Let us accelerate the pace in which we do things. Where there are issues, we need to be decisive and have a sense of urgency when needed.”

One project is the building of the Upper Umkhomazi dam.

Mchunu said his department is also coming to the party with the resuscitation of the building project and they need eThekwini municipality to further quicken the process.

“We have done most of the work that needs to be don — Thekwini needs to take a resolution that will speed up this process, together with Harry Gwala District municipality.”

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