Durban — Department of Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane said they had looked at making boreholes for health facilities that had a water challenge.
She said that KwaZulu-Natal had water challenges, however there were a number of solutions that they were looking into.
Simelane said that was what they did with the Church of Scotland Hospital situated in uMsinga sub-district, between Greytown and Dundee. She said they had to build boreholes in order for the hospital to have water.
“However, it seems that the boreholes were not deep enough because the water we found is no more, so we are looking at alternatives,” she said.
She said they were looking into getting water from the Uthukela River to the hospital. “If we can do that we will never have a water problem in that hospital,” she said.
Moreover, she said that in districts like Umzinyathi where it was known that there was water scarcity they had made boreholes so that the clinics and hospitals could function. Talking about Umgungundlovu, she said there was not much of a water problem there but the clinics were affected when there was no water in the area.
“We are looking into where the borehole interventions can take place,” she said. She added that they worked together with municipalities, but if they saw that there were problems the alternative was to dig boreholes.
Meanwhile, Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu reopened the newly refurbished Darvill Wastewater Treatment Works in Pietermaritzburg over the weekend with President Cyril Ramaphosa. He said the total cost of the upgrade was R1 billion, and that 700 000 citizens were set to benefit from the upgrade.
“The upgrade came about following the need to increase the capacity of the plant in order to meet demand, from 65Ml/d to 100Ml/d. The municipalities that will benefit from the upgrade project are Msunduzi Local Municipality and the uMgungundlovu District Municipality,” said Mchunu.
Furthermore, Ramaphosa made an oversight visit to this Wastewater Treatment Plant to inspect water projects that were aimed at improving the provision of bulk water and the maintenance of bulk water infrastructure in the province.
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