MBOMBELA – The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) has declared a war on the backlog of water provision in Mpumalanga.
MEC Ms Refilwe Mtsweni said during her recent budget speech that her department aimed to ensure that everyone in the province had access to water by December of this year. To address this Cogta will be allocating R8,5 million this financial year to wage a “war on leakages”.
“We are re-enforcing methods of dealing with those who tamper with our water supply systems. While we will work hard with the municipalities to identify and formalise these unauthorised connections in cases where our people have illegally connected to bulk lines for household consumption.
“The war to provide water is being waged on all fronts. Some of the challenges that inhibit the delivery are capacity-related. We welcome the intervention by Rand Water for training graduates to provide technical support to some of our municipalities.”
Mtsweni says illegal connections associated with uses such as for irrigation purposes would be dealt with harshly.
“We are doing everything humanly possible to provide water to all our communities.”
- Read more on Cogta’s appearances in front of the select committee on public accounts (Scopa) here.
- Click here for the MEC’s complete budget speech.
