WC ANC slams CoCT's ineffective contingency plans amid 3-day water shortage

Clarence Ford interviews Khalid Sayed, ANC Western Cape spokesperson.

Listen below.

The African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape has urged the City of Cape Town to take proactive measures to lessen the effects of the three-day water outage.

This appeal follows the City's announcement of water disruptions affecting various areas due to maintenance work on the Cape Flats water infrastructure network.

The outage will impact 22 suburbs in the southern suburbs, including Wynberg, Plumstead, Ottery, Southfield, Retreat, and nearby areas.

"As the ANC in the Western Cape, we do not have a fundamental problem with water outages when they are done in the spirit of ensuring that our water infrastructure is kept up to date."

- Khalid Sayed, Spokesperson – ANC Western Cape

The ANC expressed concern that the allocation of only six water tankers would not adequately meet the needs of the affected residents.

Since then, the number of tankers has increased to 11, yet Sayed says that this remains insufficient.

He further notes that the tankers are not deployed uniformly across all affected areas, and even where they are present, they do not cater to everyone's needs.

"People do not have the money to go and fetch water at the water tankers consistently."

- Khalid Sayed, Spokesperson – ANC Western Cape

While acknowledging that such outages are anticipated, Sayed emphasises their concern that communities were not notified in a timely manner.

He insists that contingency plans must be adequate and tailored to address the socio-economic challenges of the affected communities, a criterion he feels current measures have failed to meet.

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