(1) The Ugu District Muniicpality is the Water Services Authority (WSA) for the aforementioned areas. All the water supply systems listed above have experienced water supply interruptions due to:
The recent floods have severely impacted on water and sanitation services in the Ugu DM area and teams are currently assessing the damage to the infrustructure and working hard to restore water supply and recover the systems.
Prior to the floods, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) had been assisting with the water services challenges that are being experienced in the Ugu DM. The DWS is a member of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team that has been established by the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal to determine the root causes of water supply interruptions in the various supply systems, develop implementable interventions, and monitor the progress made with implementation of the interventions.
The DWS is also a member of the Technical Task Team and the Water Supply Challenges WAR Room that is assisting the Ugu DM to implement immediate interventions to stabilise the supply systems and develop a turnaround strategy.
However, since the floods, support efforts have focused on restoring water and sanitation services to flood damaged areas and assessing the cost to restore the infrastructure. The DWS has also assisted the Ugu DM and the Provincial Disaster Mangement Centre with disaster relief funding applications.
(2) As part of the flood relief interventions, the DWS has also hired 20 additional water tankers to assist the Ugu DM to provide emergency relief across the District for 90 days. This will allow repairs to damaged infrastruture to be effected and the systems to be restored.
(3) As mentioned in 1 above, the DWS is part of the technical task team established by the Premier. This team is overseeing the interventions along with the Provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and engineers from the Municipal Inftustructure Supprt Agency.
The DWS has also deployed a team of multidisciplinary engineers and technical experts to quantify and cost the flood damages.
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