Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Eugene Johnson welcomed the intervention by the minister of water and sanitation Senzo Mchunu in the metro’s water crisis.
Mchunu appointed Amatola Water Board to carry out the functions of Nelson Mandela Bay sub-directorate of water and sanitation.
The city is left with only three weeks of water provision before its taps run dry.
Johnson said: “The City understands that the intervention comes in a spirit of intergovernmental relations that seeks to save the City from the worst case scenario of running dry. The intervention is based on Section 63 of the Water Services Act.”
Meanwhile the DA in the metro said the intervention is the response to their plea for Mchunu to second an official that will oversee the functions of the water sub-directorate.
Two weeks ago DA Nelson Mandela Bay council Dries van der Westhuizen wrote to the department of water and sanitation and called for Mchunu’s intervention in the metro water crisis by sending an official to take over the management of water crisis due to lack of action plan by the municipality in handling the crisis.
Van der Westhuizen cited lack of leadership in the metro, which had impacted the functionality of the municipal department of Infrastructure and Engineering which currently doesn’t have an executive director and political head.
Van der Westhuizen said: “We are very grateful that national has implemented some sort of intervention through Amatola Water Board.
We asked the intervention of the national department to intervene for two reasons, the first one is that our water department doesn’t have an executive director and doesn’t have the MMC, so there is no senior leadership.
“Secondly, it would appear that the executive mayor [Eugene Johnson] and everybody else in the municipality think this is just a water problem that can be sorted out by the water officials but it is not the case, this is the whole municipality crisis and each directorate need to contribute to ease this crisis.”
Mchunu is expected in the metro on Saturday where he is expected to announce additional water crisis management measures.
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