Water provision update from ELM

The municipality acknowledges the challenges it faces with regard to the provision of water, to the extent that some taps have almost gone dry. The mostly affected areas since Friday the 5^th January 2018 were Evaton, Evaton West, Evaton North, Lakeside, Sebokeng, and now recently the Roshnee, Rustervaal and Vanderbijlaprk. The intermittent water supply was caused mainly by the inability of the municipality to service its old debt plus paying the current account to Rand Water.

However, in December 2017 the municipality and Rand Water reached an agreement to reduce water supply to Emfuleni in a bid to manage it current account. It should be noted that its current account has doubled from R41 million to R83 Million a month. This means that more water is not accounted for in the water system. Since then, the municipality has made a number of significant payments to Rand Water in respect of the overdue amount to Rand Water on the following dates: 14^th December 2017 paid an amount of R104, 354, 118.10, the 18^th December 2017 an amount of R10, 922, 593.19, the 19^th December 2017 an amount of R20.294.940.21 and R11, 472, 017.14 on the 22th December 2017.  In total the municipality has so far paid an amount of R147. 043, 668, 64 in an effort to reduce its debt to Rand Water. All these payments were made only December 2017 as part of the efforts to mitigate the situation.

Again to compound further, the non-availability of water over the weekend was compounded by theft of electricity cable which affected the pumping of water into the municipal reservoirs. The inability of the water to be pumped into the reservoirs resulted in Vanderbijlpark without water, and very minimal to other low lying areas.

The reduction of the bulk supply per month means pressure has been reduced significantly in many areas, especially those that are furthest from the source point. However, provision has been made to deliver water to the affected areas through the tankers during the day. Hospitals and schools have been supplied with the JOJO tanks in a bid to avoid any shortage of water. We acknowledge the serious implications this may have on patients, and operations at the hospitals. The tankers are dispatched as according to this schedule below:

The municipality as a first action, put in place a contingency plans to mitigate any negative impact on communities. The municipality is still appealing to the communities to continue pay for services and increase the ability to provide more services.

The task team also provide further support to the municipality to advance its water and sanitation programme, and to avert any future debt situation currently being managed by the municipality.