The Department of Water and Sanitation recently handed over 10 water trucks to Amathole District Municipality (ADM), as part of efforts to help mitigate the effects of the drought affecting the district.
The initiative falls within the department’s R30 million allocation from its Water Service Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) budget for drought relief throughout the district. From the R30 million grant, R15 million was set aside to buy the water trucks, while the other R15 million was used to drill and equip boreholes, as additional mitigation plan to address water shortages in Amathole District Municipality. Most of the boreholes have been drilled in Mnquma around the Teko Fihla and Teko Kona areas, with only three that have been equipped in the area. An additional three boreholes were drilled and equipped at Walter Sisulu University (WSU), while an existing borehole at Toleni was also equipped as part of the drought intervention.Distribution of trucks
Four of the six local municipalities under ADM’s jurisdiction, namely, Mbhashe, Mnquma, Ngqushwa and Raymond Mhlaba, will receive two trucks each, while the Great Kei and Amahlathi will get one truck each.The carrying capacity of each water truck is 12 000 litres of water. At 25 litres per person, one load will be able to supply 480 people per day.
Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pamela Tshwete, who officially handed over the water trucks to the municipality on Monday, said that the trucks will help the municipality to implement various water supplies that will accelerate the provision of water supply to communities within the municipality’s area of jurisdiction.
