Ratepayers meet with minister about water situation
This initiative never got off the ground because action meetings were never scheduled by senior staff members.
A milestone meeting held with Senzo Mchunu, Minister of Water and Sanitation will hopefully yield positive results for South Coast residents who are facing ongoing water problems.
Peter Brereton, former chairman of the Port Edward and Banners Rest Ratepayers’ Association, highlighted their concerns about Ugu District Municipality at a meeting in Durban last Friday.
Ministers, deputy minsters, as well as Magasela Mzobe, board member and chairperson of Umgeni Water and Ashley Starkey, the chief director of the Department of Water Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) were present.
The brief was drafted by Mr Brereton along with Olliver Ransome, chairman of the South Coast Ratepayers’ Association and Dave Watson, a retired councillor.
Mr Brereton said that multiple appeals by the community and representations to KZN Cogta, Ugu Council and KZN Water Affairs have been met with contempt (MEC KZN Cogta tore up the petition from residents in the sitting in front of the legislature and representatives of the petitioners) and total non-response from the department and Ugu.
Last year the combined ratepayers associations presented the document in a bid to reach understanding and co-operation.
“This was accepted by Ugu council but has been totally ignored. Representations to parliament in the form of questions have yet to be answered by the minister(s),” he said.
Representations to the Public Protector, Human Rights Commission, Special Directorate of Department of Environmental Affairs (the Green Scorpions) have borne no outcomes other than the “matter is being investigated”.
He said there have been numerous attempts by residents, ratepayers associations and councillors highlighting the plight of citizens being denied service delivery daily, and for extensive periods.
“This situation has now developed into a serious threat to our society, economy, public health and economic growth. It impacts severely on basic sanitation required by the pandemic. Our environment continues to be polluted with consequences for public health and our tourism-based economy. As our society implodes under the current state of water and sanitation service delivery, there is danger of citizen frustration and fear exploding into ongoing protests and other actions.”
Mr Brereton said that whilst it is well recorded by organs of state that both Water and Sanitation and Ugu are dysfunctional, one cannot just sit back, accept this failure, and be consigned to drinking promises instead of water and washing our bodies with various “commitments”.
“We demand urgent action and remain committed to working with the State as equal partners in rectifying the crisis. The current situation and service delivery failure simply cannot be allowed to continue.”
In the spirit of ‘thuma mina’, the KZN South Coast Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association put together a team of retired professional engineers who were prepared to offer their time and expertise pro bono to help the municipality in whatever way was needed.
This initiative never got off the ground because action meetings were never scheduled by senior staff members.
Mr Brereton said Ugu has proven they are unable to manage their water infrastructure and requests and facts presented to relevant authorities have fallen on deaf ears.
Furthermore, Mr Brereton said it has been brought to their attention that a meeting was held by National Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), Umgeni Water and Ugu whereby a plan of action was for Umgeni Water Board to manage the water extraction from water sources to all the holding reservoirs and Ugu to then manage the distribution thereof.
Mr Brereton said they had reliable information that the document/agreement has been signed by DWAF and Umgeni a long time ago, however has not been signed by Ugu.
“I told the Minister that a documented survey had been done in one of our areas where out of 30 days this area only got water for six days, and the longest period was six hours – meaning in general a large percentage of residents who could afford additional personal infrastructure had to buy water holding tanks and pressure pumps for the sake of survival due to the incompetency of Ugu and this is a very costly exercise,” he said.
He further mentioned that of the water Ugu produced a large percentage gets lost through ageing infrastructure and illegal connections and the billing system is basically in shambles.
Minister Mchunu thanked Mr Brereton for the association’s presentation and, Mr Mzobe said the matter regarding the handing over of the extraction of water by Umgeni had been discussed and not yet finalised.
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