| Mthatha’s resurrection is under way - 2010/07/29 | |
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| MTHATHA is spending millions of rands revamping its decaying and antiquated water pipes in a project that could offer some relief to the troubled town. Water provision has become an increasing concern for residents and businesses, with frequent cuts leaving some areas high and dry for days on end. Now major renovations to Nelson Mandela Drive have seen workers replacing old asbestos water pipes with new plastic pipes to address the continuing problems. The R55million project, facilitated by King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) Municipality in conjunction with the South African National Roads Agency Limited, is part of a presidential intervention to revamp Mthatha. The town has lost millions of rands through leakages as a result of its old infrastructure. KSD mayor Siyakholwa Mlamli admitted the overhaul was long overdue and could save the municipality a fortune. “The situation is bad. In the past nine years the municipality has lost at least R84m in (water) revenue,” he said. “The infrastructure here is very old and on top of that it is overloaded as it was not meant for so many people,” he said. According to Mlamli, some pipes were last changed in 1976 while others had been there since the 1920s. Mlamli said the situation was exacerbated by the fact that adjacent towns like Libode, Mqanduli, Tsolo, Qumbu, Ngcobo and Ngqeleni depended on Mthatha for services. “They do everything here and that puts more strain on the infrastructure, hence we developed a master plan to turn the situation around. We are targeting road, water and sanitation to revamp the entire system,” he said. Mlamli said after they had completed the water project on Nelson Mandela Drive they would focus on other areas. The plan was to transform the town. “We want to create a town that is cleaner, safer and healthier,” he said. Mlamli said for the proper upgrade of water and sewerage, the municipality needed at least R1.1billion. “The funds made available by the President will make a huge change, but the money is not enough to meet the demands,” he said. OR Tambo District Municipality (ORTDM), the body that controls water services in KSD and six other local municipalities, has also come on board. ORTDM acting municipal manager Mbuso Ncube said they had set aside between R15m and R32m to sort out water leakages and sewerage faults in their jurisdiction. Ncube said the situation in Mthatha was amplified by new developments that had sprung up in recent years. |
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| Source: Daily Dispatch | Date: 2010/07/29 |
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