Over 58% of water in eThekwini is lost and classified as non-revenue water, costing the municipality R638 million a month.
The eThekwini Municipality will go to the market to seek private sector investments and expertise to reduce the amount of water that is lost through leaks as this is costing the City millions of rand each month.
Over 58% of water in eThekwini is lost and classified as non-revenue water, costing the municipality R638 million a month. The intention of bringing in external experts is to reduce this figure by 10% over the next three years.
Bongani Gumede, chairperson of the Infrastructure Forum at the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, made a presentation to the business community on the intervention proposed to address water losses during a meeting in Isipingo on Thursday.
Gumede sits on the Infrastructure Committee of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group.
Gumede told “The Mercury” that his presentation was based on the high level discussion taking place within the Presidential Working Group as it related to water and sanitation.
The Presidential eThekwini Working Group was established by President Cyril Ramaphosa following a meeting with the business community and other stakeholders a few weeks ago. They had raised concerns about service delivery challenges facing the municipality.
Gumede said several interventions had been put forward to address the problems in the City’s Water and Sanitation units, including bringing in external private partners who would fulfil the roles in commercial and non-commercial partnerships.
The non-revenue water includes water that is lost through leaks and water that is not accounted for as it is supplied through standpipes and tankers. The issue of water losses has been a thorn in the side of the municipality, with the City’s audit committee having recently raised its concerns on the matter.
The committee took issue with the water supplied through water tankers being classified as non-revenue water, saying it should not be difficult to calculate how much water is supplied through water tankers as that water comes from the City’s water storage facilities.
Gumede revealed that the relationship between business and the City had not always been fruitful. Highlighting incidents of non-co-operation, he said the working group was formed after the business community complained directly to Ramaphosa.
He said even though eThekwini Metro had approved a turnaround strategy for the water unit, business was not made aware of this strategy and had to file a Promotion of Access to Information Act application to access it.
Outlining the challenges in the City’s water and sanitation unit, Gumede said the municipality had not invested sufficiently in the maintenance and development of its water and sanitation infrastructure, adding that 50% of the City’s pipes should have been changed long ago.
“This is the main cause of the high level of leaks in the water distribution system, the unreliability of the system and the poor performance of the sanitation infrastructure resulting in sewage pollution.
“The water sector must be financially self-sustaining. Therefore, eThekwini Municipality must focus on the (key areas) to enable increased funding for water and sanitation,” Gumede said.
He said these included reducing non-revenue water, increasing private sector investment in water and sanitation, and increasing water and sanitation allocations in the budget.
“Government and organised business agree on the need to increase both commercial investment and non-commercial private sector support to the City to improve its water and sanitation functions.
“The City will be going to the market as soon as possible with a commercial opportunity for the private sector to invest in non-revenue water reduction, water re-use and sea water desalination opportunities,” said Gumede.
In an opinion piece, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said demands on the existing water and sewer network were growing in eThekwini, and this called for urgent intervention.
“The City is finalising non-revenue water loss reduction initiatives that include a performance-based project for the Phoenix, Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu areas.”
Kaunda said other non-revenue water programmes were at various stages of procurement to address all water supply systems. These included water loss professional service contracts and leak detection contracts.
“This work is also bolstered by the establishment of the Non-Revenue Water Section which forms part of the ongoing restructuring of the Water and Sanitation unit which is also under way.
“We are also increasing the public private participation in the delivery of water services in the municipality. The City has since issued an invitation for expression of interest to solicit interest from the private sector to participate and assist the City in delivering water and sanitation services,” the mayor said.
The Mercury