ZULULANDERS will not have a ‘single drop of water to drink by 2025’ if an urgent water conservation demand strategy is not put into place at all municipalities.
This was according to Deputy Director for Water Sector Support in the Department of Water and Sanitation, Viv Naidoo, who addressed the uMhlathuze Executive Committee on Tuesday.
Stressing the importance of improving the municipality’s water services management efficiency, Naidoo outlined the roll-out of the Municipal Strategic Self-Assessment (MuSSA) and municipal priority action plans.
With water loss a major concern countrywide, the department had undertaken an old town water recon strategy, assessing the demand and supply as well as rate of water usage and wastage in all major towns.
‘After this assessment, we found that there will not be any drinking water by 2025, therefore water conservation is critical,’ said Naidoo.
‘Every municipality is plagued by service delivery problems relating to water. So we need to assess whether we are moving towards success or failure. As uMhlathuze wants to accelerate expenditure, glorified documents must be put into action. Therefore, MuSSA is updated annually.’
Challenges to effective municipal water services delivery included ageing water infrastructure, a changing workforce with rising lack of technical skills, poor water services planning, competing political priorities within municipalities and rising energy costs.
‘Infrastructure asset management has been in the red in most municipalities and there is a challenge to meet basic water supply and sanitation targets,’ Naidoo said.
Losses
Councillor Dumisani Nxumalo said water losses in the municipality was the main cause of the backlog, while Cllr Beena Simmadhri questioned what could be further done to address shortages and protect catchment areas.
‘Education and awareness are crucial in terms of addressing water losses,’ Naidoo explained. ‘The technical component looks at pressure management, valves and key technical aspects. The legislative approach is the use of bylaws to address water losses. The economic component is the imposing of water tariffs. These are four key pillars to water conservation demand management.’
Naidoo said National Treasury was also part of the process, with a funding plan over the next three years to provide ongoing support and address ageing infrastructure refurbishment.
