Mchunu: KZN water problems needs private sector intervention, govt will take years to deliver

Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu has admitted that if citizen’s were to place their hopes in government to restore proper flowing water to KwaZulu-Natal, it would take years before any progress is made.

“We need to start embracing collaborations and partnerships with the private sector as soon as possible as a new way of dealing with service delivery, because depending only on fiscus alone, it will take us years to adequately address these problems,” said Mchunu.

He’s called for collaborative efforts from different stakeholders to expedite the improvement of water and sanitation infrastructure in eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.

eThekweni’s ongoing sewerage crisis which arose from years of poor maintenance was exacerbated by the devastating floods in April.

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Mchunu in KZN to assess progress

Mchunu is currently in KZN meeting with various stakeholders including all three spheres of government, water entities and water service authorities to assess progress on projects currently being undertaken in the province, and to discuss ways to address the state of water and sanitation provision.

This follows a stakeholder engagement meeting with Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, KwaZulu-Natal MEC for COGTA, Sihle Zikalala, Executive Mayor of eThekwini, Mxolisi Kaunda, uMgeni Water and other stakeholders, held in eThekwini to discuss interventions to water and sanitation challenges faced by the metro.

“Collectively here, we need to find mechanism to deal with the challenges the city is currently faced with.

Mchunu also recommended for an establishment of a strong technical team that will enable the municipality to work with other role players, to carry out the work forward.

“The importance of partnership if very crucial because all of us have to work together to enhance the provision of services to the people of eThekwini.

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Technical team has its work cut out

The establishment of a technical team is also equally important to assist in identifying sources of money, allocate specific timelines to the projects, and deliver within those timelines.”

The technical team should be service delivery oriented and will work with various other stakeholders to determine a way- forward in addressing issues of infrastructure in the municipality”, said the Minister.

The department was concerned about the state of the infrastructure that has caused pollution to the rivers in eThekwini.

While there has been some progress in repairing flood damaged infrastructure in eThekweni, the municipality lacks the capacity to address the magnitude of the problems it faces, funding for repairs key among that.

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Funding needed for infrastructure

One of the critical issue raises during the meeting was how and where the money to properly fix the infrastructure would come from.

“Funding is an enabler and makes things happen, and as DWS we need to come up with a model that will encourage partnership with the public sector.

With the establishment of a technical team, there will also be will also be engagements with Treasury to iron out issues of funding,” said Mchunu.

Mchunu voiced concerns that there were still masses of people who still did not have access to water.

Meanwhile Cogta, Sihle Zikalala implored the City to prioritize the issue of non-revenue water which was also a point of contention in eThekwini Municipality.

“Non-revenue water in the city which is high by 57%. Only 40% of water that is purchased is billed and of that which is billed, less than 70% is paid,” he said.

A factor contributing to high non – revenue water is +80 000 customers that are illegally connected to the water network as well as leaks.

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