City announces total in-sourcing of water tankers
The mayor said water tankers are an interim measure, with the municipality’s long-term commitment being to ensure residents have reliable access to tap water.
ETHEKWINI Municipality has announced that it no longer outsources water tanker services as it aims to build internal capacity by insourcing critical services.
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To date, eThekwini said R345m has been invested in procuring water tankers and bringing the service in-house.
City mayor Cyril Xaba said water tankers are an interim measure, with the municipality’s long-term commitment being to ensure that residents have reliable access to water through household taps.
“After realising that the municipality was spending significant amounts of money outsourcing this service, we decided to procure our own fleet and employ additional drivers to ensure that the service operates efficiently. This has also helped us curb wrongdoing associated with the outsourcing of this service, following allegations that our water infrastructure was being tampered with,” said Xaba.
The municipality currently has an operational fleet of 318 water tankers. Xaba said an additional 43 tankers will be procured before the end of this year, increasing the municipal fleet to 361.
Xaba added that the expanded fleet would further strengthen the municipality’s capacity to deliver essential services to communities and reduce response times, ensuring that assistance reaches residents more quickly.
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