DA submits petition on water to parliament
The Democratic Alliance has submitted a petition to parliament calling for Rand Water and the City of Ekurhuleni to appear before the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation.
According to the DA, Gauteng and the rest of the country are experiencing the worst drought in 23 years.
“In Ekurhuleni, this drought has been compounded by poor management by Rand Water and the Ekurhuleni Municipality,” said Mike Waters, DA MP and Deputy Chief Whip for the DA in Parliament.
Waters said the water shortage in the municipality has seen many household taps running dry.
“To date, 1 200 residents have signed the petition, which calls for the portfolio committee to interrogate Rand Water and for the Ekurhuleni Municipality to give deadlines,” said Waters.
The deadlines entail when:
- Rand Water will install independent power supplies at all its pump stations;
- the Ekurhuleni Metro will implement the computerised telemetry system – so that they can verify, at a push of a button, the levels of water at the reservoirs;
- their action plan to repair water infrastructure will become effective, as Ekurhleni is losing 39.8 per cent of all its water;
n the reasons will be given why the financial statements submitted to Gauteng Treasury showed that, at the end of the 2014/2015 financial year, in June, the Ekurhuleni Metro had spent only 48 per cent of the R127-million budgeted for waste water management, and had failed to spend 46 per cent of the R333-million allocated for water services.
The DA is requesting that residents who have not signed the petition do so on www.petitions24.com/water_crisis.
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