Minister Mchunu laments on shortage of water in the King Cetshwayo District Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal
The Water and Sanitation Minister, Senzo Mchunu has raised a concern on the high deficit of water supply to communities in the King Cetshwayo District Municipality (KCDM), as well as the management of debt owed to uMngeni-uThukela Water board. He raised this at the meeting with the leadership of the District Municipality and Mfolozi and uMlalazi Local Municipalities, under the district.
KCDM is a home to 1,021,344 citizens, according to the 2022 Stats SA community survey, but is one of the municipalities with the KwaZulu-Natal that is faced with water and sanitation challenges. It is a Water Services Authority (WSA) and Water Services Provider (WSP) within its area of jurisdiction, except for the City of uMhlathuze Municipality which has its own WSA status.
Despite the interventions by the Department of Water and Sanitation and KCDM, there is a shortfall of 63 megalitres per day to ensure that members of the community have access to water. Minister Mchunu said to address this challenge, the DWS together with KCDM will have to build additional water resource infrastructure, water treatment capacity and distribution infrastructure to augment the supply of water which currently stands at more that 36 megalitres per day.
Minister Mchunu said there should be water supply schemes that augment water supply in the district.
“We should identity the water supply schemes in this District to be able to close the water shortage that has been long standing in this District. This is a huge deficit which is a challenge because it is more than the availability of water we have for the district at the moment. We need to close this deficit and ensure that there is enough access to water to the people,” said Minister Mchunu.
The Executive Mayor of KCDM, Cllr Thamsanqa Ntuli said the municipality has attained a steady and notable improvement on access to water supply, with major attention on bulk water supply infrastructure. He said the implementation of water infrastructure projects within the district is critical and will assist in addressing challenges of water rationing, and to eradicate the use of water tankers in the communities that are without water.
King Cetshwayo District Municipality has performed poorly during the Blue Drop assessment, resulting in a significant decrease of the municipal Blue Drop score from 74,08% in 2014 to 41.06% in 2023.
Minister Mchunu also raised his dissatisfaction with debts owed by the KCDM to the uMngeni-uThukela Water Board which manages and operate bulk water infrastructure, that is abstraction, water purification plants including command reservoirs. The Water Board is also responsible to ensure good quality water in line with SANS: 241 and to undertake maintenance related challenges and to manage and operate boreholes within district.
“The district municipality debts to our water boards are a worrying factor and interferes with the capacity of the municipality to offer the services to the people. We, as the Department of Water and Sanitation, will be assisting the municipalities and the water boards to deal with the issue of debts. This issue can only be resolved through cooperation between the affected parties,” said Minister Mchunu.
Minister Mchunu has called on the KCDM not to compromise the services to the people but should improve on its capacity and determination to ensure that members of the community have access to clean, freshwater. He said there should be cooperative role by the district municipality and the Department of Water and Sanitation to deliver the services to the people within the district.
For more information, contact
Wisane Mavasa, Spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation
Cell: 060 561 8935
E-mail: mavasaw@dws.gov.za
Kamogelo Mogotsi, Spokesperson for the Ministry
Cell: 076 523 0085
Siyabonga Maphumulo, Spokesperson for uMngeni-uThukela Water
Cell: 082 303 4243.
