The committee is in the KZN province on a three-day oversight visit to assess, among other things, progress on the interventions made by the provincial government and municipalities, especially in the areas that were severely affected by the April floods. It received updates today from the provincial government and eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
The committee remains concerned, however, with the slow roll-out of human settlements in the province and understands that this may be due to slowness in tender processes. Furthermore, the issue of water and sanitation remains a crisis point in the city as noted in media reports about the state of the city’s rivers. The committee noted that approximately 80% of the city’s sewer plants are dysfunctional, resulting in large volumes of untreated sewer flowing into rivers and oceans.
The committee wants the city to provide it with a definite deadline by when repairs at the Tongaat Water Treatment Plant will be completed. The committee heard that the delay in completing the repairs to the plant has deprived the Tongaat community and surrounding areas of access to water.
Also, the committee highlighted its concern about the fact that there is no one taking responsibility for repairs of the roads between the province and the municipality. This has far reaching implications on transport costs for the people living in communities near Shongweni who end up paying more transport fees as a result of using alternative roads.
The committee also welcomed the presentation from the Council on Geoscience which emphasised science as a basis for decision-making on infrastructure development in government. The committee supports the council’s proposal that geotechnical studies must be a pre-requisite for infrastructure development
