JOHANNESBURG – President Cyril Ramaphosa has launched a new purification technology set to help improve water quality for Hammanskraal residents.
He said the focus now is on ensuring the supply reaches households.
Government has rolled out a borehole project aimed at providing a more reliable service for residents.
“Now we've come up with a new technology for ensuring that we get groundwater through a purification system. It is a purification system that is well installed in various parts of the community of Kigana Gardens, which is going to deliver and is now already delivering water to many households.
“We've got a municipality that is going to work very hard to make sure that we do deliver water into the various communities. Now I tasted the water myself, metsi ana tastes even better than bottled water,” Ramaphosa said.
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina said phase two of its emergency water projects will be rolled out in August.
Communities countrywide have been battling dry taps for years.
“We must respond to this crisis through emergency projects. And this is part of that. This is our phase one. Phase 2 will be 70, as we celebrate 70 years of the Women's March of 1956.
“So that will be done in August. Throughout the year, we will be doing this. Here in Hammanskraal, we are augmenting what they already have. But it has taken a long time for this project to be finalized. Remember that the contractor who was appointed first messed up on the site. We had to change the contractor. We had to change the scope of work. Because as they were working, they were drilling, there are a lot of rocks here. So they had to change the entire scope,” she said.