KZN's water sharing service
David Masango
29 June 2004
Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Buyelwa Sonjica has hailed the formation of a partnership between three KwaZulu-Natal district municipalities and a local municipality to provide water and sanitation to their communities when she launched the project in Newcastle on Monday.
The district municipalities of uMzinyathi, Amajuba and uThukela, together with the Newcastle Local Municipality, have formed the uThukela Water Partnership as a Regional Water Services Provider.
Sonjica said the move was a positive response to provisions of the Municipal Systems Act of 2000, which provides for the establishment of a Multi-Jurisdictional Municipal Service District, to facilitate the sharing of resources across the borders of municipalities, thus achieving economies of scale.
"We hope that this approach will ensure that efficient and sustainable water services are provided to communities in the rural areas of this region," she said.
Sonjica
pointed out that approximately 60 percent of the population in the region lived in rural areas where there was usually a severe lack of infrastructure.
"We believe that this regional water utility will deliver water services using the best practices especially for rural conditions like this region," the Minister said.
She said the challenges facing the utility included the provision of operations and maintenance of rural water schemes, the delivery of water and sanitation infrastructure and the provision of customer care services to the people.
She added that the utility is also faced with the challenge of reaching the financial sustainability of providing water services.
"This particular challenge calls for the municipality to develop an effective credit control and debt collection policy to ensure financial sustainability.
"The indigent policy on the other hand needs to be implemented to ensure that poor people who cannot afford to pay for
services are assisted while those who can pay should be encouraged to pay," said the Minister.
She committed her department's support of uThukela Water "in its efforts to realise the dream of the people of this region".
Source: BuaNews
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