Durban — Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has listed water supply and sewage pollution challenges facing the eThekwini Municipality as one of the problems worrying her and the department.
During her media briefing to reflect on her 100 days in office as the minister, Majodina said she had sent the director general of the department to co-chair the water and sanitation workstream of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group.
The national government sent the group following the never-ending water and sewage challenges in eThekwini.
Majodina said her department working with its entity, Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) and the uMngeni-uThukela Water Board were playing important roles in assisting the City to address its water supply and sanitation challenges, including the construction of the R28-billion uMkhomazi Water Project on the upper uMkhomazi River which the TCTA was building.
The entity is also building Ngwadini Dam and the new water treatment plant on the Lower uMkhomazi River, one of the Water Board and City’s 10 largest water treatment works.
TCTA is the water trading division and the department’s infrastructure branch. Its functions include the financing, development, operations and maintenance of the national water resource infrastructure and treaty and no-treaty functions.
Once completed, the uMkhomazi Dam will ease water challenges in eThekwini and supply the southern parts of KwaZulu-Natal as well as Pietermaritzburg.
Both eThekwini and Pietermaritzburg are experiencing water shortages as a result of the department’s decision to direct the uMngeni-uThukela Water board to curtail water supply.
The water board had been oversupplying these most populous municipalities in the province, thereby violating its water-licence use.
The oversupply resulted from the municipalities’ failure to curb water losses, owing to leaks and unrepaired infrastructure.
On the success she achieved during her first 100 days in office, Majodina listed the upgrading of Hazelmere Dam in Verulam, north of Durban, which was raised by seven metres high to meet the water needs of the growing population on the North Coast. The seven-metre upgrade has increased the storage capacity and augmented the water supply. It was commissioned by the minister last week.
To deal with water security, Majodina announced that the department was currently undertaking water sector reforms, which were aligned with the Operation Vulindlela programme led by the President.
Operation Vulindlela is meant to modernise and transform network industries which include water delivery and reticulation.
Majodina also said her department had improved turn-around times for issuing water-use licences: in line with the president’s target of processing water-use licence applications within 90 days.
“For the quarter which ended in September 2024, the department processed 73% of licence applications within 90 days. This is a significant improvement from 62% processed within 90 days on average during the 2022/23 financial year. The department is training the 120 additional technical staff which it hired to process water-use licence applications and is carrying out further enhancements to the electronic licence application and authorisation system,” she said.
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