Several municipalities, including the City of Johannesburg and Tshwane, have been experiencing a wide variety of water challenges due to Eskom’s load shedding.
During his State of the Nation Address (Sona) President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke of reliable water supply for the well-being of people and the growth of South Africa’s economy.
“To ensure water security now and into the future, the Department of Water and Sanitation is leading the process of investing in major infrastructure projects across the country,” said Ramaphosa on Thursday night.
Mentioning that full-scale construction works for the Lesotho Highlands Phase Two project will commence this year after much delay.
“The Lesotho Highlands project is critical for ensuring the security of water supply to Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, North West, and Northern Cape. Several decades after it was first proposed and nine years after a sod-turning ceremony was held, the first phase of the Umzimvubu Water Project will start in the next financial year.”
The construction phase will include the Ntabelanga Dam, irrigation infrastructure, and water distribution to communities, which the president said will be financed by the government along with the construction of the Lilane Dam – which will include a hydropower station.
Ramaphosa promised to improve the supply of water to the West Coast, eThekwini, and the eastern part of Limpopo through major projects on the Clanwilliam Dam, Hazelmere Dam, and the Tzaneen Dam.
“Last year, we announced a comprehensive turnaround plan to streamline the process for water use license applications, which is vital to enable greater investment. Since then, we have cleared the backlog of water use licenses and reduced the turnaround time for applications to 90 days,” he said.
The president said that one of the greatest obstacles to infrastructure investment is the lack of technical skills and project management capacity.
“Our infrastructure build programme is gaining pace through the work of the Infrastructure Fund and Infrastructure South Africa, which has been established to support strategic infrastructure projects.”
-EWN
In other news – PICS: Actress Phindile Gwala-Ngandu so proud of her legs
One thing South African actress and media personality, Phindile Gwala-Ngandu really loves about herself, is how beautiful her legs look which is why she boldly says it out loud every chance she gets. They said, ‘if you have it, why not show it off?’, and it might be the motto she is going with!
She has for a couple of times left many of her social media followers begging for more after stepping out wearing something revealing her legs be it a short skirt, open dress, or even a bikini. Learn More