Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister, David Mahlobo has expressed satisfaction on the progress that has is being made in implementing the water and sanitation ministerial interventions to address long-standing challenges of sewer spillages and water quality in Lekwa Local Municipality.
Mahlobo, accompanied by the Executive Mayor of Gert Sibande District, Walter Mngomezulu, handed over completed sanitation projects to Sifiso Mngomezulu, Executive Mayor of Lekwa Local Municipality, and further visited the Standerton Water Treatment Works (WTW) to assess progress of its refurbishment to return it to full optimisation, and is able to produce quality drinking water.
Lekwa Municipality has experienced infrastructure failure for both water and sanitation that resulted into excessive sewer spillages, exposing the communities to health and safety hazards. The spillages also contaminated the Vaal River, prompting DWS to impose directives to the municipality.
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Last year, the Standerton Regional Court imposed a hefty fine of R70 million to the municipality for causing significant pollution to the environment and for failure to comply with compliance notices and directives issued by DWS.
The situation required immediate attention and DWS intervened and identified intervention projects within Lekwa Municipality, and Gert Sibande District Municipality was appointed in 2023 to be the implementing agent of the projects worth R350 Million funded by DWS through its Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG).
The interventions projects were a response to address ageing infrastructure, operational inefficiencies, and lack of access to water services in certain areas of the municipality. The projects entailed the unblocking and replacing of collapsed sewer manholes and realignment of damaged sewer pipes that caused sewer overflows throughout the municipality.
Mahlobo also handed over Steijn and Taljaard Sewer pumpstations to Lekwa Municipality. The pumpstations will ensure that sewer from Ward 3 in Standerton, Meyerville and the surrounding settlements is pumped to Standerton Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) for further processing.
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“This municipality was battling and could not executive its mandated responsibility to provide basic water services and ensure that people are not exposed to running sewer in the streets. However, as part of broader government intervention, the Ministry of Water and Sanitation intervened to address the challenges.”
We had to pull all our resources working with the Mpumalanga Provincial Government to resolve the issues that has plagued this municipality for a long time. The District Mayor had to assemble a very capable team to deal with the issues that were mainly about the operational deficiencies of the infrastructure. As a result, the Ministerial intervention has yielded the results, and we are confident that the municipality will continue to improve the lives of the people of Lekwa,” said Mahlobo.
