Minister: "Stop water leaks immediately"

Speaking at eThekwini Exco on Tuesday, city manager Sibusiso Sithole said that mayor James Nxumalo received a letter from Water Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane “advising that a directive had been issued by the minister to Umgeni Water [to] immediately intervene and assist the city [in] dealing with water losses”.

In 2015, the city admitted to losing nearly 240 million litres of water per day due to ailing infrastructure. This anomaly cost eThekwini Municipality about R600 million a year.

The estimated cost of repairs to address the problem would were in excess of R1,5 billion over five years.

Sithole said: “As part of efforts to manage the drought at a national level, but also to look at water as a factor at a national level, eThekwini has been identified as one of those municipalities that requires support from national spheres of government”.

Sithole said the city’s head of water and sanitation would be “mandated to engage with Umgeni Water and the department of water and sanitation on modalities for implementation of the minister’s directive and report to Exco [on] a way forward”.

While all Exco members welcomed the intervention, DA councillor Heinz de Boer said that it seemed the assistance was “a little bit late”.

“It would have been good if we had had an intervention five years ago, even 10 years ago, because we know that the water loss has been continuing for at least 15 to 20 years. It makes me question [what our strategies really are] as a city to curb water loss,” said De Boer.

He said that while the national intervention was appreciated, eThekwini’s own head of water and sanitation, Ednick Msweli, “hasn’t really come to us as Exco and told us exactly what he wants us to do in terms of water loss. We really need a plan from him,” said De Boer.

He said that Msweli, Umgeni Water and national government could have opposing plans on how to deal with the water loss, which may lead to “a bit of a conflict”.

“But apart from that, where is our deputy city manager for this cluster … that gentleman who is supposed to come in here as an engineer? He has a wealth of experience that could assist. We need that deputy city manager to come in and assist us,” said De Boer.

Deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala said that the city had indeed been implementing measures to curb water losses and to deal with ageing infrastructure and was not merely “sitting back and folding its arms”.

Councillor Logie Naidoo said: “We have reached the stage now, where national (government) is offering some help and we should gladly take up their support.”