The eThekwini Municipality executive council has approved the City’s water and sanitation turnaround strategy – aimed at addressing various water and sanitation issues

The municipality said that its water and sanitation unit developed an ambitious turnaround strategy aimed at improving service delivery to local communities.

The municipality says the strategy was been developed in response to the challenges in providing basic water and sanitation services to residents, as well as in response to water security, water reliability, and wastewater treatment and sewage spills.

It said that the turnaround strategy, tabled and approved at the City’s Full Council meeting on, is expected to ensure the City meets its Constitutional obligation to provide basic water and sanitation services while safeguarding more effective and efficient water and sanitation services to communities.

The municipality has identified three priority actions to achieve these objectives:

• Emergency Financial Turnaround Programme
• Managing the water and sanitation service as a business
• Implementing a management contract to achieve a turnaround of the business

The turnaround strategy was developed in conjunction with the National Treasury and the National Department of Water and Sanitation.

“Immediate actions identified to improve water and sanitation services include a meter installation and replacement contract and a pressure reduction contract. There is also a need to improve the management of existing contracts, including meter reading and meter installation and replacement,” the municipality said.

“In the medium term, the objective is to achieve water security. This includes reducing demand by 18% to 330 million kl per annum, ensuring the uMkhomazi Dam project is on track, and ensuring reuse projects are on track.”