As water outages plague residents across the eThekwini Municipality, The Department of Water and Sanitation has tallied up the cost of damage caused by the recent floods.

On Sunday, April 24, the minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu issued a statement, saying the estimated cost of infrastructure repairs is R1bn in the eThekwini Municipality, R63m in iLembe District Municipality and R12m in uMgungundlovu District Municipality.

The main damage was done to the pipeline that supplies raw water to Durban Heights Water Treatment works. The minister said damage to the pipeline resulted in a loss of about 280 megalitres of water in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.

This has led to reduced water flow to communities across the municipality, however, Mchunu said the Department of Water and Sanitation is working in collaboration with the Executive Mayors in the affected Municipalities to remedy the situation.

“Most of these affected municipalities were already in deficit in terms of their ageing infrastructure. Our approach therefore is to take advantage of this situation to not only repair damaged infrastructure but also to renew these ailing infrastructures. We are making immediate interventions by repairing damaged infrastructure, but at the same time we are embarking on a renewal programme of water and sanitation infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal province”, said Mchunu.

The staggering cost of the damage comes just weeks after the eThekwini Municipality Mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda announced the  R9bn Water and Sanitation Masterplan to upgrade infrastructure.

On April 4, Kaunda announced that the City would invest R9bil over the next three years for the construction of reservoirs, upgrading of water treatment plants, and the replacement of water mains.