Pretoria - North West Premier Bushy Maape has vowed to speed up services to strife-torn areas in the province where the lack of water has led to violent protests.
Earlier this year, the North West came under sharp focus after various communities lodged service delivery protests in Braklaagte near Zeerust, where residents barricaded the R49 road linking Zeerust and Gaborone in Botswana.
Residents said they last had clean water last year. The province was also hit by instability at various municipalities, including the Ditsobotla Local Municipality.
Maape wants to turn around the situation and has urged all the role players, including municipalities, to speed up the provision of water.
His spokesperson Sello Tatai, said the North West premier’s Co-ordinating Council recently held a meeting following the instability resulting from poor service due to ageing infrastructure, vandalism, and ongoing electricity power cuts which had an adverse impact on the provision of water.
Tatai said a permanent solution was being sought with the premier’s Co-ordinating Council resolving to initiate a Rapid Service Delivery Monitoring and Intervention Strategy.
“At the centre of this strategy is to give focused attention on inconsistent provision of basic services, improve information availability on service delivery challenges as well as developing a system that will help the government resolve identified service delivery challenges.
“Communication by various government departments and institutions will be strengthened to keep residents abreast of intervention measures employed by the government to address service delivery backlogs.
“Communities will also have an opportunity to report to the government any service interruption through a web-based free access online application,” he said.
Tatai said the strategy would be implemented through the Provincial Accelerated Service Delivery Plan.
He said Premier Maape has urged various levels of government to work together and ensure full implementation of the strategy. “This strategy is aimed at intensifying our efforts to expedite delivery of services in municipalities and avert violent protests. Municipalities are also considering alternative energy sources to ensure uninterrupted provision of water.
“We have also been alerted to possible acts of vandalism in our water infrastructure. We have requested police to follow all leads, investigate these allegations and arrest perpetrators of this hideous crime.”
Tatai said the Co-ordinating Council had also reflected on the visit by the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu to the province, saying the visit was one of many initiatives by the provincial government to work hand in glove with the national department, Water Boards and the private sector to address water and sanitation challenges across the province.
Various intervention measures are already in full swing. A follow up meeting is expected in due course to take stock on progress made.
“We want to include everybody in these initiatives. Mining operations in the Bojanala District are already assisting through Corporate Social Investments and Social Labour Plans. We want to scale-up these efforts through an intensified collaborative effort,” Premier Maape added.
A Technical Team assembled by the premier was undertaking visits to localities across the province to monitor provision of services in government departments and institutions.
The initiative is also aimed at developing remedial action plans on service delivery challenges.
“We want to interact directly with communities to understand their plight and to mae informed decisions about projects. Already various infrastructural projects will be carried out between now and the next financial year,” Maape said.
Pretoria News