Durban signs memorandum to address water and sanitation challenges

The city released a statement on Thursday, 19 November explaining that it had come to an agreement with stakeholders to ensure the city has access to clean water and sanitation.

“To address water and sanitation challenges in the City, eThekwini Municipality’s Water and Sanitation Unit in partnership with the Water Research Commission (WRC) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop innovative ways to ensure eThekwini residents have access to clean water and proper sanitation,” said the city’s spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela.

Mayisela said the understanding will guide those involved in the collaboration, the facilities and innovation to enable research, sharing, co-creation, piloting and upscaling of new technologies for improved public access to water and sanitation.

“One of the areas of co-operation will be around non-sewered sanitation systems which remains a critical challenge in informal, peri-urban and rural communities across South Africa,” said Mayisela.

Population growth

“With a growing population, supplying clean and safe drinking water and proper sanitation remains a significant challenge in the country which has impacted service delivery,” he explained.

ALSO READ:  Durban municipality promises to fix Burlington residents’ effluent overflow ‘immediately’

Head of Water and Sanitation, Ednick Msweli said eThekwini has a large indigent population requiring services which is exacerbated by difficult settlement types and terrains.

“This partnership will facilitate access to new and innovative solutions that have been developed by the WRC and trialled through their innovation acceleration platforms such as the Water Technologies Demonstration Programme and the South African Sanitation Technology Enterprise Programme,” said Msweli.

He added that aging infrastructure, water pollution, water scarcity and climate change are some of the key challenges they face.

“These innovative solutions will enable both parties to identify specific solutions for any particular challenge encountered by eThekwini and is of mutual interest to both parties.”

Sustainable

Dhesigen Naidoo, Chief Executive Officer of the Water Research Commission (WRC) said the commission strongly believes that innovation inclusive of technological, social and institutional innovations will lead South Africa towards a sustainable service delivery model and a sustainable future.

“It is exciting to collaborate with an entity that shares our vision of testing and upscaling sustainable innovations that address water and sanitation challenges and is willing to catalyse its commercialisation and uptake for the benefit of all South Africans,” said Naidoo.

ALSO READ:  uMbilo river oil spill: Community encouraged to report vandalism to pipeline

Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting

Dear reader, 

As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19. Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za). 

At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.    

Do you want to receive alerts regarding this and other Highway community news via Telegram? Send us a Telegram message (not an SMS) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5409. You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts. Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.