It will take millions of rands to solve water issues which have plagued the Maphumulo community for years, however the available budget from Ilembe municipality falls disastrously short of what is needed to complete four major projects.
This was revealed at the recent water summit meeting held at Maphumulo community hall last Thursday.
R75 million will be spent on the Ntunjambili water supply scheme, where they will raise the main pump station, storage reservoir, water pipes and yard connections.
The project is still in the planning stages and the municipality only has R4 million budgeted.
They still need to source funding to the tune of R71 million.
Another R125 million will be required for the refurbishment of water pipes at the Masibammbisane water supply and R5 million for the upgrade of the Ngcebo community water supply.
Current challenges include burst pipes, faulty prepaid meters and airlocks, which combined are the main cause of water shortages at Mthandeni, under the Qwabe traditional council.
The municipality only has R21 million budgeted for all of the projects, leaving them short by R207.5 million.
According to the municipality, residents vandalise water pipes and valves ‘in search of water’, not understanding how the flow of water and the piping system work. Residents were told that water needs to reach the reservoir before it could reach them.
Maphumulo needs about 12 million litres a day and currently, the Maphumulo waterworks is only able to provide nine million litres – meaning some areas go without water.
Umgeni Water promised to resolve this by June 2022 and the project is out to tender.
Ilembe mayor Sduduzo Gumede said residents need to understand that if water was not wasted, the municipality could have saved millions of rands, which could be used for providing better infrastructure.
“We understand that we have challenges and therefore we felt it was important to come and report this to the community as well as present our plans to solve them. But the issue of vandalism is something that troubles me more – I wish that residents would stop damaging infrastructure,” said Gumede.
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