The Makana Municipality is struggling to contain costs for delivering water to areas affected by outages and shortages, and the fire department is taking strain, having already made nearly 900 deliveries.
The Makana Municipality is struggling to contain costs for delivering water to areas affected by outages and shortages, and the fire department is taking strain, having already made nearly 900 deliveries.
The municipality spent R22 000 on water deliveries in June, and around R26 000 in July.
“I am concerned that the costs to the council for water deliveries seems to be going up,” said Councillor Michael Whisson.
He questioned whether the issue will be addressed at the upcoming Water Indaba. Makana Manager of Fire Services, William Welkom acknowledged that "water delivery is definitely a problem".
Welkom said that currently they had a list of areas and schools that did not have water, and that they had already made 875 deliveries for the 2009/2010 financial year, which puts a lot of strain on the fire department.
However, he said that the technical services department is currently in the process of purchasing a vehicle for water deliveries.
Once this is done, only then can the technical services department be able to take over this task which was initially their responsibility.
Councillor Nomhle Gaga said she commends the fire department for the great efforts they are making to deliver water.
Councillor Les Reynolds said he was concerned that this way of delivering water is not sustainable. He questioned the possible effect of the diminished availability of the fire department's resources should there be a fire, adding that delivering water should not be one of the fire department's priorities.
The head of the Social Services Portfolio Committee, Councillor Julia Wells, said the matter will be addressed at a Water Indaba on Friday 10 September at 9am at a venue still to be determined.
