The DA says it is leading the charge in getting answers over the recent water crisis and the extremely poor response from the metro.
The week-long water shortages stem from power outages at a major pump station in Eikenhof, south of Johannesburg, causing reservoirs to run dry.
Due to poor contingency planning and maintenance, a large part of Ekurhuleni has been hard hit by water shortages, and unless immediate action is taken this crisis is set to be far more severe than it ought to have been.
In any well-run metro, contingency plans should exist and be put into action immediately.
If the metro had alerted residents to use water sparingly, affected areas would have been less hard-hit, and the metro would have had plenty of time to implement contingency measures.
“It is an absolute disgrace that the metro tried to blame residents for water outages, citing high water usage in the heat wave, when it was clear that other factors were in play.
“The metro’s failure to react swiftly to avoid the crisis is symptomatic of poor governance,” said Bruna Haipel, for the DA.
“Not only is the metro’s disaster management ill-equipped to immediately and regularly send water to affected areas, but its existing fleet of water tankers cannot possibly meet demand – while unable to seek private assistance due to its cumbersome tender processes.”
The DA has requested a report on both the original problem, as well as which plans were in place and what steps were taken to ensure that the water shortages had as little impact on residents as possible.
The DA will have representatives at every one of the water crisis meetings to be held in the metro this evening.
