The South African Local Government Association (Salga) said it plans on discussing the issues surrounding water supply and water infrastructure within various municipalities within the province, including eThekwini, at its national executive meeting in Durban this week.
Salga said it would be reviewing some of the best practices with regards to service delivery that are used in other provinces or municipalities and that could be implemented in KZN.
The Salga meeting will run from Wednesday to Friday at the Elangeni Hotel on the Durban Beachfront.
There are 54 municipalities within KZN, including 10 districts and one metropolitan area.
Each of the 10 districts are expected to present Salga with a report on various subjects, including the state of service delivery and financial management and sustainability.
“The session will see SALGA leadership interact with municipalities in the province and attend to pressing matters that require urgent attention. The engagements are a result of the NEC’s decision to intensify regular interaction between SALGA and its member municipalities in a bid to resolve various pertinent local government concerns and provide guidance.
“Municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal have in the past marred by various challenges such as the escalating numbers of political killings, water crisis exacerbated by inadequate infrastructure for water supply and management, consequential challenges posed by the disastrous floods that hit province in April 2022, the emergence of rates payment boycotts, and the shrinking municipal revenue, among others,” Salga said.
During the 2023 Govtech Conference at the Durban ICC in September, Salga was awarded in the category of digital governance.
This was for their work on the Salga Matrix, platform meant to simplify municipal planning processes.
Last month, a majority of the ten districts in KZN were called out by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for violating people’s right to access clean drinking water.
This was during the release of its “KZN water inquiry” report following over 600 complaints the SAHRC received from residents across the province, who claimed they had little to no access to clean drinking water for long periods at a time.
“In King Cetshwayo district municipality, Umlalazi local municipality residents complained that they have received no water for years. In the Ugu district municipality, in Margate and Hibberdene, no water has been available for five months, yet residents are billed in full,” an excerpt from the report said.
SAHRC Commissioner Philile Ntuli said that in some parts of KZN, residents share a water source with animals.
Maintenance and upgrades of the water networks in the districts were scrutinised as well, as the Commission found there were no appropriate plans to upgrade ageing infrastructure.
In response to the report, the eThekwini Municipality said it was budgeting R1 billion in the 2023/2024 financial year to address water infrastructure issues.
Municipal spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana, said the just over R1 billion budget will be spread over six sectors, with the lion's share meant for upgrades.
New infrastructure was allocated R124,950,000; refurbishment of infrastructure - R78,085,000; infrastructure upgrades - R323,984,000; non-revenue water - R228,876,000; storm-damaged infrastructure - R40,800,000; and “other, e.g transport assets etc.” was allocated R207,723,000.
IOL