Knysna municipality faces two-week deadline for water and sanitation plan

The Knysna municipality has just 14 days to present a comprehensive plan to tackle its pressing water and sanitation issues.

This urgent deadline follows a significant setback, as the Western Cape's local government department has decided to place the municipality under administration. MEC Anton Bredell announced that this decision was prompted by a range of challenges, including inadequate service delivery.

On Tuesday, Parliament's cooperative governance and public administration portfolio committee visited Knysna to evaluate the situation and determined that the administration must outline a clear strategy to resolve the ongoing water and sanitation crises within the two-week timeframe.

Committee chair Mxolisi Kaunda said they were concerned that many stakeholders had highlighted the issue of broken water pumps.

"The provision of quality water and sanitation is critical to the socio-economic well-being of residents," Kaunda said.

The committee found one of the major issues was the non-functioning water pumps, which affected the availability of water and led to sewerage spillages in the municipality.

"The committee emphasised that the municipality must have a clear plan to resolve the dispute with the service provider appointed to maintain the water pumps to ensure quality services for the people."

The committee said it was informed that the municipality has filled senior management positions, which will ensure a strategic focus in implementing the municipality’s objectives as set out in the constitution.

Furthermore, the committee was informed that the council is sitting regularly, and that all committees, especially the Municipal Public Accounts Committee, are functional.

"After receiving the representations from all internal and external stakeholders, the municipality will convene on Thursday to reflect and make a decision," the committee said.

"It will then submit recommendations to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) plenary scheduled for Friday, where a final decision will be taken."

Should the decision to place the municipality under administration be final, an administrator would be appointed on September 27, a move that would trigger fresh elections within 90 days to install new political leadership.

From the day Bredell announced his decision, the NCOP has 14 days to decide whether the intervention is valid.

If the NCOP approves, the intervention goes ahead and the municipality remains under administration, but if it disapproves, the intervention is cancelled.

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Cape Argus