Ilembe finances drying up

Ilembe district municipality (IDM) has been hemorrhaging funds for the last two years, doing everything they can to mitigate the effects of the worst drought since the 1920s and Ilembe mayor, Welcome Mdabe is not sure how much longer the district will be able to survive.

While spending R3.38 million a month to hire 22 water tankers in addition to the 15 they already own, IDM’s revenue from water billing has plummeted from R12 million to R3.5 million a month because there is no water in the taps.

Mdabe said they were spending more than before on water tankers, boreholes and other disaster management strategies related to the drought although currently receiving less than a third of their normal revenue from reticulated areas.

“Capitalism is hurting our financial viability; the higher demand for scarce water has led to a spike in the cost of hiring water tankers and we are taking strain,” said Mdabe.

IDM bought 1500 jojo tanks at a cost of R6 000 each but today only 300 jojo tanks remain as the other 1 200 have been stolen. The jojo tanks were placed at strategic points to be filled by water tankers for people to collect water. This means people do not get water if they miss the tanker.

Water tankers get water from the Tugela River and tankers that supply Ndwedwe have to drive 150 kilometres to collect water from the Tugela River, which takes a day and a half. Mdabe said staff worked 18 hour shifts to get water to families at least once every five days.

The Tugela River is the lowest Mdabe has ever seen it and the Umvoti River is a disaster.

To maintain a water supply of eight million litres per day (less than half of its normal production) from the Umvoti water works that supply Stanger and surrounding areas, IDM has drilled six boreholes in the Umvoti River at a cost of about R2 million each.

Under normal conditions the Umvoti extraction plant produces 18Ml/day and the current eight Ml/day is not enough to supply high lying areas.

This has left Glenhills, Townview, Rocky Park, Stanger Manor and Stanger Heights high and dry.

Mdabe said they were looking for suitable spots further up the Umvoti River to drill more boreholes and increase daily production to 12Ml/day so that there is enough water to supply all of Stanger.

He said illegal sand mining has also worsened the water shortage.

“In December 2015 I walked up the Umvoti River all the way to Glendale with a team of eight people and found numerous places where illegal sand miners were damming up water.”

The illegal sand mining activities were reported to the environmental affairs and energy departments and the Green Scorpions were called in. Mdabe said Ilembe then spent R4 million busting open sand mining dams, allowing water to flow to the Umvoti extraction point, opened 21 cases against illegal sand miners at the KwaDukuza SAPS and equipment was confiscated.

Today all 21 cases are still with the NPA and illegal sand miners continue to rob the Stanger area of water.

Mdabe said IDM were also directly impacted by political protests.

“Public protests where water infrastructure is damaged, as when the Sundumbili waterworks was under siege for an entire week in early June, makes Ilembe look like a failure and is costing us more money,” said Mdabe.

Water leaks, caused by vandalism, aging infrastructure and water cuts that cause pipes to burst are putting further financial strain on IDM.

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