Sine Thwala
AS THE severe drought continues to ravage the Zululand district areas, ZDM Mayor, Cllr MA Hlatshwayo, is set on doing his best to alleviate the issue.
One way of doing such was doing a site hand over to a contractor that was recently appointed to construct the new Usuthu Water Purification in Nongoma.
The plant, which was worth more than R116 million, is expected to take more than two years to build and will help ease water supply in the Nongoma areas.
The contractor Stefanutti Stocks JV ORO Projects was appointed in December last year (2015) and their construction work is divided into two phases, which will be complete in the next two years.
The contractor is expected to be on site within fourteen days of the date of the site hand-over.
The mayor said that both construction phases would create great job opportunities for the Nongoma community.
The mayor also handed over a contract to the construction company that will be building a three mega-litre concrete reservoir and access road worth R38 894 595 for the Nongoma community.
Mayor Hlatshwayo said the construction of the Usuthu water purification plant and the Reservoir is a long-term programme to resolve water supply challenges within different areas of Nongoma.
“This forms part of our programmes to deliver water services to our communities which had been suffering for some time. The situation was aggravated by the severe drought that continues to affect the whole district and the province of KwaZulu-Natal. We hope the construction of the purification plant will help resolve water challenges within the Nongoma area,” he said.