Acting city manager Lonwabo Ngoqo has written to councillor Gustav Rautenbach seeking outside consultants to address the metro’s ongoing water and electricity problems. The move follows a poor performance review by the Department of Water and Sanitation.
In the letter Ngoqo described the situation as unbearable and said he is looking for service providers to identify problems and solutions for water, sewerage and electricity. Councillor Rautenbach had written earlier that the waterworks could not resolve ongoing outages and stated that help was needed.
The Department of Water and Sanitation review gave the metro 35 percent for asset management and 45 percent for operation and maintenance of assets, down from 75 percent previously. It highlighted failures to meet norms and standards, high water losses and a lack of maintenance budgeting.
Wastewater treatment works showed major regressions, with none achieving Green Drop certification. Systems at Driftsands, Fishwater Flats and Cape Recife were flagged for complete failures across multiple compliance areas.