In a world in which so much is uncertain, at least you can rely on Eskom to be punctual with its loadshedding schedule.
SARS, the taxman, is also never tardy.
After two lengthy power outages in Ballito and surrounds on Monday, at 8pm on the nose there goes the power. Zap. Nada. Nothing.
It matters not a whit that the entire North Coast from Zimbali to Stanger, and much of Durban and South Coast has been mostly without water for a week and as such our geysers were and still are all off.
Nope, we all must do our bit to protect the national grid. What utter toss.
Some years ago (2009 – 2014), the municipality spent a lot of money installing remote geyser switches.
The idea was to prevent loadshedding by remotely switching of resident’s power guzzling geysers and thereby prevent power interruptions.
The programme is working in numerous municipalities, including parts of Jo’burg run by City Power. It is a great pity the project failed locally.
I am, however, unlike Eskom, sincerely grateful for Siza Water.
We have had at least a few hours of water every day since Saturday and water tankers have been running 24/7 to the areas where damage to pipes prevented this.
Tongaat residents have not been so fortunate. One of my staff living in Tongaat said they had not had a drop all week and she had only seen one tanker in the same period.
I know that a great many people have suffered terribly in these floods, so I will not utter a single complaint about my frigid bucket showers.
I am grateful to have had any water at all and for the tankers that brought water when the taps were dry.
Still, I cannot but confess that one of my most joyful moments in the week past was when for a single hour on Monday both the power and the water were on simultaneously and I could have a hot shower.
If you have ever wondered why we are so lucky to have Siza Water in this corner of the municipality, let me tell you it had nothing to do with luck.
It is extremely unusual to have a private company managing water and sanitation services.
Back in 1999, when water provision failed locally, the now defunct Dolphin Coast Borough entered into a 30-year concession arrangement with the then French company, Siza Water.
Siza has since been sold twice since and is now proudly South African.
The Borough included the area from Zimbali to Tinley Manor (12,5km²) and it is a great pity the entirety of KwaDukuza did not benefit from the agreement.
I believe it was difficult enough to have brokered the agreement for this small area and government was at the time not willing to relinquish the rest of the municipality, which is still controlled by iLembe district municipality.
Siza was to be a pilot project, a trial run to see if this public-private partnership idea could really work.
Infrastructure was in a shocking state and the company had to invest heavily to make service delivery possible, so much so that I believe the company declared no profits until about 2004/5.
Since then water has largely been delivered timeously and is of excellent quality.
On the sanitation side, Siza was once again awarded Green Drop certification by the Water and Sanitation Department last month.
To achieve the Green Drop stamp of approval, a waste water system must achieve a minimum score of 90% when evaluated against the criteria set for wastewater management.
Out of the 995 wastewater systems that were audited for the period July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, only 23 were awarded this prestigious certification!
What is of concern now is that the end to this concession period is only 6 years away.
I am sure that I am not alone in my opinion that it is of critical importance that the concession be extended for a further 30 years.
KwaDukuza municipality could play a pivotal role here in convincing the powers that be, and perhaps at the same time allow Siza to extend its operations to include Stanger and the rest of the municipality.
Still, us ordinary citizens had better not rest on our laurels in this regard.
The challenges in providing water and sanitation to citizens are enormous, but they are not insurmountable.
I believe that public-private partnerships are the vehicle we need to get there and Siza Water is the test that shows us how bright the future might be.
