More funds needed for cholera-hit Hammanskraal water plant
Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu says they will be working with the City of Tshwane to fix the water treatment plant in Hammanskraal.
The area north of Pretoria has recorded 21 of the 22 deaths caused by the current cholera outbreak.
Hammanskraal's Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant has been in need of refurbishment.
Contractors who were appointed by the City several years ago did not finish the work.
This week, Tshwane allocated R450 million over three years towards the upgrades.
Speaking at a briefing alongside Minister Mchunu on Friday, Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink said more funding was needed for the work.
READ: WHO officials descend on Hammanskraal
"Our meeting and the proposal that we now are going to take to other spheres of government and departments is a plan to fund the upgrade of Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment facility within a specific period of time.
"That will finally be a break to fix Rooiwal, clean the water, get the funding, work together; and by making this preliminary agreement, we convey to National Treasury as well as to other potential assistance that this relationship is not holding back the solution."
Brink says tests conducted on the tap water in Hammanskraal show it's not the source of the cholera.
"Various other tests on the other two water systems - Magalies and Rand Water - has found the same.
"Various tests are being done in water tankers, and what the minister has said - and I agree with him - is that we've got to synthesise all of these findings so that we don't run around and do different tests. We [must] concentrate our efforts and actually find the source so that we can work on it."
