Durban - The Department of Water and Sanitation has announced plans to improve access to tap water for the long-suffering community of uMgungundlovu in Pietermaritzburg.
The area has been without tap water for years. Communities in areas like Elandskop have had to rely either on the unreliable supply by water tankers, natural streams or the kindness of a local doctor who has built a borehole.
In a statement this week Wisane Mavasa, who is the spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation, said the department, together with the Umngeni Uthukela water board, had set wheels in motion to address water challenges in the uMgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.
“This is through the upgrade of Phase 1 of the Vulindlela Bulk Water Supply Scheme to improve the availability and supply of drinking water to various communities in the uMgungundlovu District, including Msunduzi and the uMngeni local municipalities.
He said the Vulindlela Bulk Water Supply Scheme was one of the government’s most successful projects post 1994 and was situated in Vulindlela, west of Pietermaritzburg. The initial Bulk Water Supply Scheme was constructed in 1998 and was subsequently fully operational following its adoption as a National Presidential Lead Project.
The statement said the upgrading of the bulk water scheme was the result of the population growth of Vulindlela over the past decade, as well as an increased municipal demand for water.
It said one of the key components of the Phase 1 upgrade would be the construction of a new reservoir to increase drinking water storage by an additional 20 megalitres per day to reach 35 megalitres per day, so that more water would become available for distribution to communities within the Vulindlela region.
The upgrades would also include the installation of new pipelines between different reservoirs and the construction of a new pump station to increase supply of water and augmentation of power supply, read the statement.