Question NW2974 to the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation
14 December 2020 - NW2974
Hendricks, Mr MGE to ask the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation
(1)Whether, in view of residents in the Ugu District Municiplity in KwaZulu-Natal who have to endure frequent water outages, leaving them without this basic necessity for several days, she intends to support and strengthen the capacity of the specified municipality in accordance with section 154 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, as complaints to the local relevant authorities are not receiving the required attention; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) whether her department will investigate the efficiency of local authorities to respond to the frequency of water outages and the specified district’s failure to deploy water tankers to the area during outages; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
(1) The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) provides financial support to the Ugu District Municipality in the form of the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) to deal with its water supply challenges. Since the inception of the WSIG in the 2015/16 financial year up to the 2020/21 financial year, the DWS has allocated R378.68 million to the municipality.
An allocation of R50 million was provided to the municipality in the current financial year to implement the Non-Revenue Water Reduction Project aimed at reducing water losses. It is envisaged that the project will be completed by June 2021.
In addition the DWS is working with the Provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) and Umgeni Water to support the Ugu DM in conducting an assessment of the most suitable water services provision arrangements in the area.
(2) The provincial CoGTA department is conducting an assessment of water services infrastructure to determine the refurbishment requirements and is in the process of developing a Provincial Water Master plan. These interventions will assist in aligning and prioritizing grant funding to effectively address the challenges being experienced. In order to address the significant challenges facing water services in the Ugu DM area, a task team has also recently been established.