Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma will on Sunday visit the uThungulu District Municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal, to launch a drought relief programme.
The Presidency said on Friday, the visit is part of government’s efforts to support areas across the country that have been affected by drought.
The district municipality is a water services authority for five of the six local municipalities in its area of jurisdiction such as the Mbonambi Local Municipality, Nkandla Local Municipality, Ntambanana Local Municipality, Umlalazi Local Municipality and Mthonjaneni Local Municipality.
The Mhlathuze Local Municipality is authorised as a water service authority for its local municipal area.
“The district municipality, which is one of the most stricken areas by the current drought in KwaZulu-Natal, has bulk water infrastructure mainly centred in its small towns including Eshowe, Melmoth, Mtunzini, Nkandla and Mbonambi.
“It also has over 200 small water supply schemes served by production boreholes and springs covering most of its rural areas. Some of these water sources have dried up as a result of drought,” said the Presidency.
The district was allocated R23 million from the Drought Relief Fund for the development of 32 new boreholes and protection of seven springs through its business plan that was approved by the Department of Water and Sanitation for implementation in April 2015.
“The Mthonjaneni Local Municipality has about 9 712 households and 30 percent of this number (2 824 households) have no sustainable access to water.
“The town of Melmoth and Thubalethu Township are supplied by the small package water treatment plant (2.8 ML/d). This water treatment gets water from the Melmoth dam which had dried out, however with the recent rainfall; it has slightly recovered to 28 percent,” it said.
In February 2016 the Department of Water and Sanitation donated a water tanker that was dedicated to service Melmoth area. In the same period, the district municipality put up 12 Jojo tanks in Thubalethu and another 12 Jojo tanks in town.
“Each Jojo tank has a capacity of 5 000 litres. The water tanker is fetching water from the Melmoth water treatment plant and fills the Jojo tanks,” said the Presidency.
The current schedule of water supply is that both the town and the township alternate.
The drought task team in the area have embarked on measures to look for additional water sources which include negotiating with private farmers to use their dams, drilling additional boreholes and raising the wall of the weir.
Refurbishment and upgrading requirements were identified to address the challenges. These includes bulk pipeline, reservoirs and pump station to effect a connection to the regional water scheme; replacement of AC pipes in Melmoth with uPVC pipes; construction of 1 500 kilolitre reservoir for Melmoth; and establishment of water demand management facilities.
In his State of the Nation Address in February, President Zuma indicated that government would continue to support farmers and provide water-tank services to communities through the Drought Relief Fund.
He said the building of water infrastructure remains critical to expanding access to people and industry. - SAnews.gov.za
