THE ANC-led Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality learnt no lessons from the episodes of water shortages in September 2014, says the DA.
“The governing party has taken the recent drought conditions and warning signs too lightly as residents now begin to pay the price,” said Bruna Haipel, DA Shadow MMC for Water and Energy on Wednesday.
Last year parts of Ekurhuleni also experienced water supply interruptions due to erratic water supply from Rand Water, the bulk supplier.
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“Big businesses have been in contact with DA councillors, urgently requesting help to try and find a solution to the water shortages.
If solutions aren’t found, these businesses could lose millions and see profits dry up, which will result in retrenchments and loss of jobs.
“Beyond the effect of water shortages on businesses, people in poor communities find themselves queuing for hours at tankers hoping to fill their buckets before the tankers also run dry,” she said.
“But it seems once again history is set to repeat itself with the metro lacking contingency plans much like in September 2014. This, after the executive mayor, Clr Mondli Gungubele, addressed residents, assuring them this catastrophe would never happen again under his watch.
“Reservoirs should have been monitored to make sure they did not go below 50% and water restrictions should have been in place when the metro saw that this was about to happen. People living in the higher areas do not receive water if reservoirs are below 50% full. Instead, nothing was done,” Haipel said.
At a recent Water Forum Meeting, the metro was told it would have to reduce its consumption because Rand Water would not be able to supply it efficiently if they did not. Once again, this warning was not taken seriously and no restrictions were imposed, Haipel continued.
“The biggest failing of the leadership in the metro is the lack of political will to serve communities by upgrading the old and crippled infrastructure. The DA has raised concerns on numerous occasions in council and oversight over the lengthy process it takes to repair water leaks due to contractors not being appointed.
“The DA has been extremely critical of the low performance and lack of spending by the department of water and sanitation. The underspending of over R166 million on the repairs and maintenance budget has been an issue of great concern, as this money could have gone a long way towards alleviating the massive 36% unaccounted-for water loss in the metro.”
