Jozini Dam earmarked for domestic water supply

Speaking at the KwaZulu-Natal Water Summit, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said that climate change would impact future availability and that government was, therefore, giving emphasis to both mitigation and adaptation strategies.A key strategy related to ensuring that water resources were managed in a manner that enabled the provision of reliable and cost effective water services on a sustainable basis.

Ageing water infrastructure, the unauthorised connections would have to be dealt with, as would the prevailing shortage of skills at all three spheres of government.“We will not be able to provide clean, reliable water and good sanitation facilities to our people if we do not ensure that the resource itself is protected, allocated and managed efficiently. We must also ensure that the past inequities in the allocation of water resources and access to services are redressed as speedily as possible.

Sonjica stated that the availability of water in the KwaZulu-Natal province remained skewed and that an equitable allocation of water, under the aegis of the water allocation reform (War) programme, was a departmental priority.
She further noted that as a result of short-sightedness of developers from the previous dispensation, communities were living next to the big Jozini Dam in the uMkhanyakude District for decades without directly benefiting from this dams. “This will now be addressed. Development options to use water from these dam to supply domestic water services and to support micro-economic development in the adjacent areas will be investigated and dedicated funding will be sourced to facilitate beneficiation of local communities.”

Siyethemba Jozini Dam would then be utilized to the fullest to benefit our communities.