The embattled Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape needs more than R3 billion to address its water and sanitation backlog.
It is struggling to provide sustainable water supplies to its residents.
More than 250 000 of the 870 000 population are without water.
Executive Mayor Anele Ntsangani says one of their major challenges is the vandalism of water infrastructure.
“The issue of water infrastructure is an issue for us given the fact that there is vandalism of our infrastructure by some hooligans. They deliberately vandalise infrastructure because some of them want business. They know if they vandalise a pump station, we will hire them, hence, we have taken the decision that we are going to hire armed guards 24/7 at our pump stations.”
VIDEO | Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu says South Africa has enough water:
