Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Mayoral Committee Member for Infrastructure and Engineering Khanya Ngqishe has called on Deputy Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Prince Burns Ncamashe to support the Metro by mobilising resources as the Metro shifts its focus from drought mitigation to aggressive infrastructure maintenance.
Mayoral Committee Member Ngqisha and NMBM Executive Mayor Gary van Niekerk with the Deputy Mayor Babalwa Lobishe hosted the Deputy Minister on a site visit to Impofu Dam to inspect the impact that has been made by the recent rainfall. Impofu Dam, which is the biggest dam that the metro draws water from is currently at 42.02 percent compared to the 9.31 percent at the same time last year.
The Deputy Minister was in the metro to interact with senior political leadership and administration on the work that has been done under the District Development Model (DDM).
The Deputy Minister was appointed by the President to be a champion of the DDM project. The DDM is the intergovernmental mechanism that brings together the 44 districts and 8 metros as development zones built around the strategic alignment for all spheres of government to guide strategic investments and projects.
As of his visit, Deputy Minister assessed the DDM work that has been done to mitigate drought, work that still needs to be done and the resources needed to achieve such.
MMC Ngqisha said the relief that has been brought by the consistent rainfall that has filled most of the dams to 100 percent has given the metro an opportunity and time to shift focus to aggressively addressing infrastructural challenges that are a threat to water security.
“For the past 8 years we have aggressively implemented water augmentation projects to secure the consistency of water availability. We worked to avoid a day zero as that would have had a catastrophic impact to our residents and our economy. Thank you to the rain, the situation was rescued,” said MMC Ngqisha.
He said the metro needs a serious improvement on its water and sanitation planning, budgeting, resource mobilization and spending. The current financial strain experienced by the metro will not put it in the right position to achieve some of its targets.
“Some of our targets include eradicating water leaks, replacing all old water pipeline, valves and spend more on maintenance of our treatment and pump stations. Such work needs a lot of money, it is for this reason that we will need assistance from Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department under the DDM to mobilise and streamline more resources for us,” added Ngqisha.
Deputy Minister Prince Ncamashe expressed his pleasure at the work that has been done by the metro, working with other spheres of government including the Water and Sanitation Department in mitigating what could have been a catastrophic drought situation.
“The experience you have gone through and the manner in which you planned and implemented most of your projects to mitigate the impact of drought is a good foundation for a broader implementation of the DDM in Nelson Mandela Bay. Lessons have been learnt and results are already there for everyone to see. It is now up to us to review and strengthen some areas for the metro to achieve some of its infrastructure development goals in other areas as well,” said Deputy Minister Prince Ncamashe.
The Deputy Minister called on residents and businesses within the metro to pay for services rendered like water and electricity as this is going to assist in mobilising resources for more work to be done.
“You have seen what can be achieved, working together. I call on you as residents to play your part, those who can pay must pay for services,” added Deputy Minister Prince Ncamashe.
Executive Mayor Van Niekerk said he was hopeful that the visit by the Deputy Minister will assist in giving a clear understanding to the national government of the current pressing infrastructure challenges that the metro is facing. The Deputy Minister also engaged political leadership and senior managers on different areas of service delivery deliverables.
NMB Communications
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