Johannesburg - The DA in Gauteng has demanded that Premier Panyaza Lesufi urgently implement a disaster management plan to deal with the water “crisis” and load shedding in the province.
Recently, Gauteng residents have been subjected to low water pressure or no water at all because the reservoirs are not able to fill up sufficiently due to load shedding.
DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga said the only way to deal with the crisis was to establish a task team to deal with the water and electricity crisis, outline the exact steps that will be taken to have the province become less dependent on Eskom, embark on a public awareness campaign in conjunction with municipalities on water and electricity conservation and engage independent power producers so that additional electricity can be procured for the province.
“The electricity crisis is not new, and the ANC-led government has had ample time to come up with a concrete strategy that would shield our residents from the incompetence of state-owned entity (SOE) Eskom,” Msimanga said.
He added that the issues with Eskom were having a ripple effect on the supply of water
“If the current government was serious about ensuring that none of our residents’ human rights are infringed, they would have a plan in place ready to implement. For service delivery to continue unhindered, the provincial government must immediately get their ducks in a row,” Msimanga said.
The DA in Gauteng said it would have a similar plan in place to the Western Cape, where residents are protected from higher stages of load shedding because they have the extra energy-generating capacity by using hydroelectricity.
The Star