Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister, Dikeledi Magadzi, says the department will hasten the process of ensuring that the community of Ga-Malekana in Sekhukhune, Limpopo, has access to water.

This follows complaints by the residents of Ga-Malekana village, that despite their proximity to De Hoop Dam, years after the completion of the multi-million-rand dam, they still struggle to access potable water at their households.

As a result, some have resorted to illegally connecting water to the main pipeline that distributes water from the dam to Jane Furse, which unfortunately leads to infrastructure destruction and water losses.

Addressing the community, political and traditional leaders at a meeting on Friday, Magadzi assured the residents that her department is working hard to ensure their access to water.

She said the political leadership of the department had been instructed by President Ramaphosa when he appointed them to prioritise water and sanitation, and get to the root-cause of the problem of water services in the country.

“Minister Mchunu, Deputy Minister Mahlobo and I are working around the clock to address water challenges throughout the country. As a result, we stretch ourselves to different parts of South Africa to try and address water issues and we are confident [we will] get it right,” Magadzi said.

In the past two months, Minister Senzo Mchunu and his deputies have visited the Free State, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Limpopo to meet the leadership of water parastatals, Mayors and Premiers to discuss their respective water challenges.

Mchunu is scheduled to soon visit the Giyani Bulk Water Scheme with a view to find a speedy solution to the project.

Meanwhile, Mchunu is today visiting Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality in QwaQwa and later in the week, from 5 to 7 October, he is scheduled to visit Gauteng with the purpose of getting to the bottom of water challenges and to find ways of addressing them.

Source: South African Government News Agency