eThekwini Municipality Deputy Mayor, Philani Mavundla, has hosted a delegation from Netherlands who visited the City to share best practices on an array of issues, particularly water.

Mavundla told the delegation that the City is open to collaboration and working closely with the Netherlands Embassy on issues, including water loss, boosting tourism, logistics, greening procedures, renewable energy, and innovation.

“We must leverage on their expertise as they are among the top ten countries in the world when it comes to water issues. Learning how to effectively deal with water loss issues will benefit the municipality,” Mavundla said.

Netherlands Ambassador, Janneke Vrijland, said it is important to have apolitical ties with the municipality to share ideas and knowledge on how they further develop their respective countries,” Vrijland said.

Municipality’s Water and Sanitation Senior Manager, Dhevan Govender, said cooperation with the Netherlands has already yielded pockets of positive benefits for the City.

“The Centre of Expertise is one of the initiatives to try new innovative technology. It does this by matching the needs of the utilities with new technology,” said Govender.

oThongathi Treatment Plant repairs to be completed by October

Meanwhile, eThekwini Municipality has reassured residents, especially the community of oThongathi that the City is working tirelessly to complete repairs of oThongathi Treatment Plant by October this year.

This follows a meeting between Water and Sanitation, Minister Senzo Mchunu, together with the municipal officials and residents, held last week to provide an update on additional plans that are in place to ensure residents have water coming out of their taps while repairs are underway.

The municipality reported that in the interim, there will be a tie-in to the Mamba Ridge pipeline that will assist to direct two million litres of water a day from Hazelmere Dam to oThongathi area.

The Mamba Ridge tie-in is expected to be completed by 15 September 2022.

“We have approached Tongaat Hulett Sugar Maidstone Mill to ask them to assist with boosting the water supply in the area so residents can have water running from their taps. In addition, Illembe District Municipality and Ndwedwe Local Municipality have also been approached to assist in boosting the water supply in this area.

“And finally, on 30 August, we launched the Spring Clean-Up Programme. This will be a month-long intensive cleaning programme focusing on sprucing up the south, northern, and western areas of the City,” the municipality said.

It added that the initiative is a collaboration between the municipality and the business sector to optimise environmental awareness and the cleaning efforts in the City.

Source: South African Government News Agency