Water and sanitation minister and Tshwane mayor inspect Rooiwal water facility
"Phase 1 will cost the metro R280-million and is expected to be completed in October 2022."
Williams, along with water and sanitation minister Lindiwe Sisulu, visited the facility in the north of Pretoria on Wednesday for inspection.
The visit was aimed at seeing first-hand what progress had been made to have the facility operate optimally.
The metro was instructed by the parliamentary portfolio committee on human settlements, water and sanitation during its oversight visits to the facility in 2019 and 2020 to promptly deal with the water and wastewater problems in the area.
Williams said the plant in its current state was not sufficient to serve the needs of the people of Hammanskraal.
“Not only do we need to update the equipment in this facility, but we also need to double its size.”
Williams said phase 1 will cost the metro R280-million and was expected to be completed in October 2022.
“After that, residents will see a significant improvement in the water quality.”
He said despite invitations by former Johannesburg mayor and now Action SA president, Herman Mashaba, he would not be participating in the public hearings starting this weekend regarding the water crises in Hammanskraal.
“A real need for a community is being exploited for political purposes, so I’m not prepared to participate in that.”
Williams said it was unfair for residents to pay for water used only for washing, toilets and cleaning.
“This was why we need to fast-track this project. We are providing water from Magalies and Rand Water.
“We are also supplementing portable water via water tankers, which are not ideal but are needed so that residents have clean potable water,” he said.
“Where residents still do not receive potable water, the councillors need to inform the administration and we need to correct that situation, because it is a human right violation if we know about it and allow it to continue.”
He said the metro was currently paying R5-million for tankers to deliver water to the residents in Pretoria.
“The sooner we get this project finalised, the sooner we can do away with these water tankers.”
Sisulu said they concurred with Cogta minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to “ban” water tankers.
In February, Hammanskraal residents claimed government officials were reluctant to fix the water problem in this area because the tankers were under a tender and that the officials were benefiting from it.
Sisulu said as soon as Dlamini-Zuma had worked out regulations to ban the tankers, she would issue it to all municipalities.
“She will give them time to phase it out. What we would love to see is for the metro to own those tankers and employ people to drive them because it takes away the possibility of councillors benefiting.
“We [want to] remove that profit possibility for any councillor and that doubt that our citizens might have about councillors. We would like to believe that our councillors are outstanding citizens, which is why they stood to be elected.”
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