Speaking at the reopening ceremony of the Lesotho Highlands Water Tunnel in Clarens on Sunday (25/5), Majodina emphasised the complexity of the issue. The 37 km long tunnel has been reopened after seven months of repair work.

The project is a collaboration between Lesotho and South Africa to transfer water from Lesotho to South Africa. It is a transfer tunnel linking Katse Dam with Muela power station and Muela Dam.

“In terms of sanitation and the backlog on the bucket system, I will never commit to eradicating those bucket systems because … you are chasing a moving target. As long as there are mushrooming informal settlements, they mushroom with informal bucket systems that are not authorised by us,” Majodina stated.

The bucket system. Screenshot: GroundUp

Her department provides financial assistance to municipalities through grants for bulk infrastructure projects. However, many municipalities in the Free State continue to struggle with infrastructure maintenance and eliminating the bucket system, leading to frustration among communities.

Vaal Central Water Board CEO, Luvuyo Ntoyi, reported progress in addressing these challenges, particularly in Maluti-a-Phofung, a municipality which has long been plagued by dysfunction due to political instability.

“Just to indicate the progress we have made in Maluti-a-Phofung as part of the intervention through the minister – we have four water projects we are implementing. Two are in Fika Patso and Sterkfontein, and we’ve got another two under operation and maintenance. We are also busy with pipelines, which are supplying the area of Maluti-a-Phofung.

“And then, minister, in terms of sanitation, we have about seven wastewater treatment projects we’re implementing to ensure the water we service is not polluted into our rivers and that all the infrastructure we provide is adequate. In terms of intervention, minister, we are in year two now of a five-year intervention,” Ntoyi said.

In a recent media briefing, Mangaung Mayor Gregory Nthatisi shed light on the dire sanitation in his municipality. The metro has 79,000 non-waterborne toilets, including 50,744 pit latrines.

“Pit latrines might have been good in previous years, but they have surpassed their lifespan. We need to ensure we develop waterborne toilets for our communities across the metro. The remaining number of that figure accounts for bucket systems and other modalities that may not be conducive as well,” Nthatisi said.

Addressing these sanitation challenges requires two critical resources: adequate funding and a sufficient water supply. He revealed that research conducted in partnership with institutions such as the University of the Free State and the Central University of Technology has been pivotal in developing solutions to the metro’s water scarcity issues.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi cg