Zikalala: Progress being made in solving KZN water, electricity issues

He says repairs on water infrastructure have not stopped since they were severely damaged during the floods two weeks ago.

Thanks to these efforts, Zikalala says there's been a 60% improvement to supplies in eThekwini and Durban's Inner and Outer West regions.

The city's central and northern parts improved by around 50% and 42% respectively.

The premier says teams in eThekwini are laying a temporary pipeline to supply the southern region after the Umlazi Canal pipeline was damaged.

 READ:  Total cost of KZN floods more than R17bn, says Zikalala

Residents in areas north of Durban are not so lucky.

"The damage to Tongaat water treatment plant has affected the supply of water in the entire northern areas. Unfortunately, the entire system requires a full upgrade and this will take approximately six months. An interim measure, which has been procured, is a package plant that will enable us to purify raw water from the source. Working with Umgeni water we are also planning to utilize Hazelmere as an alternative supply.”

Zikalala was delivering an update on the government's response to the catastrophic floods during a media briefing in Mayville on Sunday.

On electricity supply challenges, he said the city's seen a remarkable increase in the volume of faults, which's increased fivefold.

While power's been restored to all high voltage substations while work is still underway at the Bayhead, Mariannridge, Toyota, Mondi and Sapref power stations.

"In Mariannridge our team is still inspecting the damage after the power station caught fire on Tuesday evening. At Toyota, the process of cleaning the power station and testing has been completed, the process of replacing damaged cables at Mondi and Sapref is moving with speed as we have already issued orders to contractors.

“Once procurement has been completed the municipality will be able to replace the cables within 14 days.”