Ramaphosa hails Mchunu's pace in attending to water and sanitation projects

President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed the way minister Senzo Mchunu has fast-tracked water and sanitation projects since assuming office.

Ramaphosa said Mchunu had targeted projects that had stalled or the government was spending billions on without seeing any results.

“When minister Mchunu took office he travelled all over the South Africa — in cities and rural areas — to assess the state of water provision in the country. He took me to Limpopo where we had spent over R3bn without seeing any progress,” he said

“He took over the project of the big dam in Umzimvubu, Eastern Cape, that had been discussed in parliament for over 15 years. He spent over a week there, meeting people's concerns and today that project is starting.”

Ramaphosa was speaking during a community engagement event at Taylor’s Halt sports ground in Vulindlela, Pietermaritzburg on Friday.

Ramaphosa, together with Mchunu, conducted an oversight visit to inspect water projects aimed at improving bulk water provision and the maintenance of bulk water infrastructure in the province.

They officially opened the refurbished Darvill wastewater treatment plant and attended a soil-turning ceremony for the upgrade on the first phase of the Vulindlela bulk water supply scheme.

This scheme will improve the availability and supply of drinking water to communities in the Umgungundlovu district, including Umsunduzi and uMngeni local municipalities.

The upgraded plant, constructed in 1998, underwent a R1bn facelift and has an increased sewage treatment capacity of 100 megalitres per day, from 65, for residents of Umsunduzi.

Mchunu said the plant will reduce the level of pollution of the Umsunduzi river and improve the quality of water reaching the Inanda dam.

“The sewer for the whole Umsunduzi will be processed here — except for Ashburton since it has its own system. So the people will be benefiting from a clean environment and cleaner rivers. This river flows up to eThekwini so it will also benefit because water will be very clean when it goes to Inanda dam,” he said.

He said it also comes with world class technology that allows for cogeneration of electricity for its internal use, using waste being treated there.

“It has been developed in such a way that it has a cogeneration of energy at a level of 100 megalitres. It is one of the newest plants that will have that kind component so in due course it will start generating electricity of its own for use in the facility,” he said.

Commenting on Friday’s proceedings, Ramaphosa said: “I’m happy that we are holding an imbizo, discussing water issues. I have been brought here for two projects. On the first one, we have invested R1bn for water works in Darvill. I have witnessed with my own eyes the R1bn has been utilised. I hope it was not consumed by certain individuals, but it helped the community.”

Ramaphosa said he was pleased Mchunu was on top of the water provision issue because it was one of the biggest crises in the country.

“It's better in KZN because we have rivers, in provinces like North West and the Northern Cape they don't have much but we are addressing that problem,” he said.

Umsunduzi mayor Mzimkhulu Thwebula said they were excited the project was finally being implemented.

He told TimesLIVE the capacity of the Vulindlela water scheme had not been meeting the increased demand for water due to the growth of the population over the years.

“When former president (Nelson) Mandela came here the project was only meant for 11,000 households but today we have more than 55,000 which means the capacity of the scheme could not respond to the increased demand. From now on we know that the problem of Vulindlela will be resolved which tells us that there will also be economic growth during construction,” he said.

“In the meantime we are building about 18 boreholes to respond while we are waiting for the completion of this project.”

TimesLIVE