Umgeni Water and officials from the Department of Water and Sanitation conducted a stakeholder engagement and also visited the Lower uThukela Bulk Water Supply Scheme in Mandeni on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast.
The multi-billion water scheme will see rural communities as far as Mkhuze in the northern part of the province getting clean water.
The phase one of the project has been completed and it can provide reliable water supply to over 300 000 people.
Umgeni Water’s Acting CEO Thami Hlongwa says this project is part of National Development Plan programme which will see three water entities including Umgeni water providing water in the whole country by 2030.
“Vision 2030 entails whereby we then have the coverage of the entire country covered by water ports now for you. To do that you need to then have enabled sustainable as well as capacitated water ports to cover the entire country. Vision 2030 talks about us having three water ports in the country whereby the whole coastal province of KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape as well as Western Cape will be covered by one water port. The inland province towards the north will be covered by another water port. As Umgeni water we fully subscribe to vision 2030 as pronounced by the National Development Plan.”
Meanwhile, local residents are delighted with this initiative. They say they feel blessed as they do not have to travel long distance to get clean water.
“We really appreciate that we do have water now next to our houses and our yards because usually we had problems to travel long distance for water, we really say thanks, and it’s a pleasure,” says a resident.
