Water and Sanitation Minister, Senzo Mchunu, will on Tuesday lead discussions on medium- to long-term interventions to address water challenges in Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (NMBMM).

The department said the Minister will work with the municipality and other stakeholders to come up with lasting solutions to the ongoing drought.

The Department of Water and Sanitation, together with the municipality, has implemented several short-term interventions to address water challenges in the metro.

These include water tanks, water trucks, drilling boreholes and water restrictions.

“The completion of Phase 3 of the Nooitgedacht Low Level Water Scheme and the construction of the Coegakop Water Treatment Works are part of the long-term interventions that government is putting in place to address water challenges in Nelson Mandela Bay.

“The upcoming workshop will strengthen efforts towards the long-term resilience of not just the metro but surrounding areas and the province, as envisaged by Minister Mchunu,” the department said.

Consultation on resources strategy

Meanwhile, the department, led by its Director-General, Dr Sean Phillips, is holding the first public consultation workshop on the third edition of the National Water Resources Strategy (NWRS-3).

Phillips and other members of the department’s executive management will launch and workshop the NWRS-3, which builds on the National Water Resources Strategy editions 1 and 2, at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria on Monday.

The consultation follows Cabinet approval of the Draft NWRS-3 for public consultation and a notice that was issued through the Government Gazette on 29 July 2022.

The department noted that the NWRS is currently the legal instrument for implementing or operationalising the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998), and it is “thus binding on all authorities and institutions implementing the Act”.

The NWRS-3 is open for public comments over a period of 90 days from the date of publication of the notice.

“[The NWRS] is the primary mechanism to manage water across all sectors towards achieving national government’s development objectives. The first NWRS was published in 2004 and the second edition (NWRS-2) was published in 2013, and was the blueprint for water resources management in South Africa,” the department said.

Source: South African Government News Agency