Coronavirus: KZN deploys water tankers for those without running water

The KwaZulu-Natal government is deploying water tankers to rural areas which are water scarce to stamp out the possible spread of the coronavirus.

Provincial MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sipho Hlomuka, said the department was teaching rural communities about the coronavirus pandemic, and was particularly concerned about those areas with no running water.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the MunicMEC meeting, where mayors and municipal managers of the province’s 54 municipalities converged on Durban’s Public Works Conference Centre.

“Water tankers will go to areas, especially rural, to distribute water,” he said, adding that the province was also scheduled to create over 400 boreholes that would assist in supplying water.

“We developed a water master plan to deal with areas that do not have water. We have been in a drought, like most of the country. However, we are working on short-term solutions.”

In a presentation at MunicMEC, Poncho Bapela, an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), urged the room full of mayors and municipal managers to educate communities on the pandemic.

She said it was important that municipalities communicated with the public.

“Hand sanitisers should be placed at all entry points of the municipality buildings. We encourage you to print the coronavirus information leaflets and pass them out at all public gatherings and events. We need to get the message out as much as we can.”

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