South Africans have over the years experienced water shortages as some say lamented that their basic human right to water is being violated.
To address these concerns, Minister of Water and Sanitation Pemmy Majodina says the country needs R400 billion to fix water infrastructure in municipalities across the country.
“What we are going to do as a delegation sent by the president here, we are going to compile our report, but we must not thumb suck about the challenges and amount that is needed. In terms of water infrastructure at the local government sphere, we need nothing less than R400 billion to fix the water infrastructure.” Pemmy Majodina said during a media briefing in Emmarentia in Johannesburg.
Meanwhile, Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo says a technical team has outlined measures such as “soft water restrictions“ in some Gauteng areas to prevent the system from crashing.
“People can not survive without water, recently, we have experienced high temperatures. When high temperatures happen….the issue of consumption becomes very high. When the consumption became high, the Minister and round water they communicated to the authorities and the MCE wrote to all the Municipalities to say we need to save water and use it accordingly.” he stated.
“We have done our assessment, and in terms of the immediate issue of restoring the situation in the areas where there is no water and not to allow the system to crash, we have agreed with the technical team to support their recommendation that there is going to be a soft water restriction. The soft water restriction will only apply in the areas where the system is already providing water. We are going to put restrictions, we are going to communicate. It is not going to only affect Johannesburg, it will affect Tshwane, it will affect Ekurhuleni.”
Source: Elvisanokye.com
