By: Trudie Grovè-Morgan: MPL – DA Spokesperson on CoGTA
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) MEC, Mandla Msibi must take urgent and decisive action to address the alarming rate at which Mpumalanga municipalities are losing water.
Lekwa local municipality, one of the worst offenders, has for the past three consecutive financial years lost over 90% of its water mostly due to illegal connections and water leaks that go on for weeks before they are attended to.
In the 2017/18 financial year, Lekwa lost 93% of its water, resulting in a loss of R62 million for this ailing municipality. Dipaleseng municipality lost 74% of its water while Thaba Chweu municipality lost 66% of its water.
These alarmingly high water losses are becoming heavy contributors to job losses, especially in the province’s agricultural and manufacturing sectors. They are also yet another indication of the declining state of Mpumalanga municipalities as a functional municipality wouldn’t be losing almost all its water while residents sit with dry taps.
Just last month, Astral Foods in Standerton, the country’s largest poultry producer raised the alarm on how the municipality’s failure to adequately supply water to the factory was forcing it to consider shedding over three thousand jobs.
Rampant corruption and poor management of the province’s municipalities have caused poor service delivery to become synonymous with rising unemployment, and the only way to reverse this is to fight corruption at a local governance level.
Urgent action needs to be taken to address dysfunctional ANC municipality that are threatening the sustainability of the local economy and the livelihoods of thousands of workers in this province.
The DA will write to MEC Mandla Msibi asking how he plans to address the crippling water losses, particularly in Lekwa, Dipaleseng and Thaba Chweu.
Water is vital for sustaining all life on earth and having access to a sustainable water source is a necessity. Mpumalanga municipalities will not recover without decisive leadership that speeds up basic services and ensures that water conservation is a priority.