Multi stakeholder Technical Team to brief the media on outcomes of meeting to resolve eThekwini Metro water challenges
The Director-General in the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), Dr Sean Philips, will lead a media briefing on the outcomes of a multi-stakeholder technical meeting between DWS, the eThekwini Metro and uMngeni-uThukela Water to resolve the current water challenges in eThekwini.
This follows a directive by the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Mr Senzo Mchunu, that the eThekwini Metro, working with uMngeni-uThukela Water, should urgently come up with long lasting interventions in response to ongoing water and sanitation services in the Municipality.
The meeting, scheduled for tomorrow, 26 January 2024, comes in the wake of protest action over the non-availability of water by the community of Verulam, north of Durban, and will make strong recommendation on steps to be taken by the eThekwini Metro to deliver water to all communities.
This is in line with the resolutions of a Water Summit held earlier this month which adopted that all the 105 municipalities in the country are either in the critical or poor performing categories must consider alternative mechanisms of delivering water and sanitation services whilst simultaneously building their internal capacities.
According to South Africa’s Constitution, local government is obliged to ensure water service provision, and the primary role of municipalities as Water Service Authorities, is to take steps to ensure the delivery of water services, not necessarily to deliver the services themselves.
Members of the media are invited to attend the media briefing on the outcomes of the multi-stakeholder technical meeting to be held as follows:
Date: Friday, 26 January 2024
Time: 15:00
Venue: eThekwini, (venue to be confirmed)
For confirmations kindly contact Mbali Mahaye on 082 601 5674 or Siyabonga Maphumulo 082 303 4243.
For more information, contact Wisane Mavasa, Spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation on 060 561 8935 / mavasaw@dws.gov.za
