EThekwini Municipality is expected to receive its new 100 water tankers by December. l Zainul Dawood
Durban — In its attempt to mitigate persisting water challenges, eThekwini Municipality has ordered 100 trucks to be used as water tankers.
This was revealed by Mdu Nkosi, the new chairperson of Trading Services portfolio committee in the eThekwini Municipality. The new committee, where water, sanitation and electricity services fall, came as a result of dividing the Human Settlements and Infrastructure unit into two.
Speaking to the Daily News on Monday as part of his turnaround strategy to rid the City of the escalating water crisis, Nkosi said the City had purchased the additional new 100 tankers to assist in the war against water crisis.
“We have purchased 100 new water tankers to add what the City already has. I can confirm that 21 tankers have already been delivered to us but we are expecting all of them to be in our depots by December,” said Nkosi.
He said the City currently had 160 tankers on its book, along with 230 that are privately owned. With the additional new 100 tankers the City will have a total fleet of 260. Nkosi further stated that buying tankers was a temporary measure and his ultimate goal was to fix the water infrastructure and end water outages thereby ensuring that residents get water from their taps.
He said the additional tankers would not only assist in reducing the water challenges, but also cut down the expenses that were currently being incurred by the City to hire privately-owned tankers. Last year, the City bought 55 new water tankers.
To assure the residents that the City was serious about addressing the water problem once and for all, Nkosi said his committee was now holding water crisis meetings every Friday to deal with water challenges, saying mayor Cyril Xaba also sat in the meeting.
He said the meeting received progress reports on new water challenges. It then comes up with strategies to address the problems.
The City has been besieged by water and sanitation issues for a longer period of time, especially in the northern areas.
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News