His statement comes after his two-day visit to Maquassi Hills and Ramotshere Moila Local Municipalities from 19 to 20 January 2023, where he assessed the state of water and sanitation in those parts of the province, and also receive an update on the water supply interventions that are being implemented through the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) granted by the Department. 

Accompanied by Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Dikeledi Magadzi; North West Premier, Bushy Maape; MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA), Nono Maloyi; district and local municipalities’ leadership as well as Magalies Water Board, Mchunu revealed his plans to deal with water and sanitation challenges that are experienced in North West.

“We are establishing a political steering committee, chaired by myself and the premier, for the whole province. Under that steering committee, there will be a technical task team that will be convened by the DWS. Magalies Water will be included, as well as all district and local municipalities, whether affected or not by these challenges for now. The technical structure will be represented by technical individuals such as engineers because this is a purely technical committee that will be responsible for assessing every municipality, looking at available resources, analysing existing water schemes, those projects that are complete and incomplete, and all causes of stress on the water in the province, and come up with solutions,” he said.

Mchunu further stated that a task team will provide them with a detailed plan of what needs to be done, costs and contributions by each municipality at local and district level, and the Board, as well as the department, in order to restore water in areas where there are challenges.

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