Durban — The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has allocated R1.4 billion for Ugu, uMkhanyakude, and uThukela district municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal as part of their project to improve water services in rural municipalities.
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina said to address the shortage of raw water in eThekwini and Gauteng, the DWS has constructed the new Polihali Dam in Lesotho, and the uMkhomazi Water Project in KZN.
Additionally, she said the uMngeni-uThukela Water Board in KZN was assisting a number of districts to implement various water-supply schemes to increase access to piped clean drinking water for local communities.
This included the R9.5bn Mandlakazi Bulk Water Supply Scheme under Zululand District Municipality, and the uMkhanyakude District Municipality (including the Jozini, Big 5 Hlabisa, uMhlabuyalingana and Mtubatuba local municipalities).
Majodina said the work involved the construction of infrastructure to extract water from Jozini Dam and supply it to neighbouring communities.
Majodina said the department will ensure that there is timeous investment in additional national water resource infrastructure; focusing on diversifying the water-mix, and increasingly make more use of other sources of water, including the sustainable use of groundwater, water-reuse, and seawater desalination.
Majodina said her department will implement more effective water conservation and demand management programmes to bring the water consumption per capita-levels in line with or below the international average, and ensure that industries use water as sparingly as possible.
To assist municipalities implement this responsibility, the national government provides municipalities with grants to address backlogs.
These grants include the Municipal Infrastructure Grant which is allocated to municipalities by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Human Settlements Development Grant which is allocated to metropolitan municipalities by the Department of Human Settlements (DHS), and the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant and Water Services Infrastructure Grant which are allocated to non-metropolitan municipalities by the DWS.
To address declining municipal water and sanitation services, the DWS said they would shortly present the Water Services Amendment Bill to the Cabinet for approval, and for it to be submitted to Parliament.
Majodina said the bill introduces measures to enable the national department to take regulatory action against municipalities that do not comply with national minimum norms and standards for water services.
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