Water minister urges co-operation between King Cetshwayo district and department

Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu has raised concerns about the high deficit of water supply to communities in King Cetshwayo District (KCDM), as well as the management of debt owed to uMngeni-uThukela Water.

He was speaking at a meeting with the district leadership, together with local municipalities at the Richards Bay Bon Hotel on Friday.

KCDM is a Water Services Authority (WSA) and Water Services Provider (WSP) within its area of jurisdiction, except for the City of uMhlathuze which has its own WSA status.

According to the department, despite interventions KCDM has a shortfall of 63 megalitres per day to ensure community members have access to water.

Addressing the meeting, Mchunu said the department, together with KCDM, will have to build additional water resource infrastructure, water treatment capacity and distribution infrastructure to augment supply.

“We should identify the water supply schemes in this district to close the shortage that has been long-standing. This is a huge deficit, which is a challenge because it is more than the availability of water we have for the district at the moment,” said Mchunu.

Acknowledging the decline in the district’s Blue Drop score, Ntuli lamented the fact to their working relations with uMngeni-uThukela Water, but said the municipality has attained a steady and notable improvement in access to water supply, with major attention on bulk water supply infrastructure.

According to the most recent Blue Drop Report, KCDM performed poorly, resulting in a significant decrease in the municipal score from 74.08% in 2014 to 41.06% in 2023.

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