KwaZulu-Natal water utility Umngeni-Uthukela Water (UUW) is set to step in to oversee the operations and maintenance of 10 wastewater treatment works to curb eThekwini's ailing sewage system.

"UUW will not be taking over these plants, instead will be appointed as a managing contractor to provide operations and maintenance of the [treatment works]," said eThekwini spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo on Wednesday.

UUW will work for 12 months, with an option to extend their contract to 24 months, she added.

Last week, in a presentation to the national executive committee of the SA Local Government Association, eThekwini said UUW had visited 16 treatment works and conducted "due diligence".

UUW then submitted a proposal to eThekwini, in which they said they would oversee the operation and maintenance of 10 of the 27 treatment works.

"These 10 works constitute about 90% of the volume treated in the 27 treatment works," the presentation read.

Among the treatment works are KwaMashu, Phoenix, Amanzimtoti, Umbilo, Isipingo, Umhlathuzana and Umhlanga.

Khuzwayo said the municipality's internal procedures and relevant municipal legislation was adhered to the appointment of UUW "to manage all resources for a period of 12 months".

UUW would be paid "an agreed agency fee", Khuzwayo said.

"That has already been provided within the municipality's approved budget for the 10 identified [waste water plants] and related pump stations."

She said the agency fee was "covered within the municipality's approved budget", but didn't share specific figures.

She added:

No additional funding has been provided for by the municipality.

Khuzwayo said the 2022 floods "greatly affected the municipality's resources and capacity to cope".

"However, this collaboration will allow the municipality to redirect its resources and focus on other critical aging infrastructure challenges."

eThekwini has battled with aging infrastructure for years, with the floods worsening the problem.

In February – while responding to legal proceedings from ActionSA in KZN, who were seeking political accountability for water and sanitation issues – the provincial economic development, tourism and environmental affairs department said eThekwini had failed to respond sufficiently to compliance notices and directives for environmental issues going back to at least 2020.

In his responding affidavit, the department's top official in KwaZulu-Natal, Bonginkosi Dlamini, the acting chief director and the director of compliance, monitoring and enforcement, brought several issues to the fore.

At the time, Dlamini said the department laid criminal charges against eThekwini water and sanitation head Ednick Msweli, former City manager Sipho Cele, and current City manager Musa Mbhele.

'Agreement will be monitored'

When asked about the estimated timeframe for repairs, Khuzwayo said the agreement with UUW would be monitored and reviewed annually to "ensure that it is effective, efficient and economical for the municipality".

"During this period, it is anticipated that the works will be restored to a functional state."

When quizzed why the City felt Umngeni-Uthukela could bring relief, Khuzwayo said the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) had issued the eThekwini with a notice "and requested an action plan to remedy the effects of the floods within the metropolitan area".

"The unprecedented 2022 floods put the municipality in an uncompromising state. This collaboration will allow the municipality to join forces with UUW in terms of expertise, resources and capabilities to restore the wastewater treatment works to a functional state and help the City to comply with DWS compliance standards."

She was confident of UUW's ability to restore the ailing wastewater works, saying the "partnership collaboration" with the water utility would allow the municipality "to focus on its core business".

"[Being] distribution and reticulation of water and sanitation, focus allocated funds to reduce its backlog as well as give attention to other critical water and sanitation infrastructure challenges."

Commenting on the move, Adopt-A-River director Janet Simpkins said it was a "step in the right direction".

"The infrastructure upgrades and maintenance of wastewater plants, pump stations and networks have been long overdue, even before the floods brought these shortfalls into the spotlight. So any intervention and assistance in this regard would be a positive step."

eThekwini's rivers are still heavily polluted, so any action to improve this will be beneficial, she added.

GroundWork director Bobby Peek welcomed the proposal from UUW.

"If this brings in more skills and resources to support eThekwini municipality, this will be welcomed."

He added:

It is a challenge if the City cannot meet its human rights commitments because of water leakages and poor sanitation management. If this process leads to meeting these commitments, then this is positive.

E.coli and raw sewage

Almost every part of Durban and its surrounding areas have reported issues of raw sewage flowing onto the streets and into rivers and the ocean.

The City is presently battling fluctuating levels of e.coli at its main beaches.

Msweli on Wednesday said the City had begun joint sampling of beach water with independent labs.

While the present results from 5 October reflected safe beaches, the independent tester, Adopt-A-River, showed instances of marginally higher levels of e.coli than the City's testing. However, it was still within the accepted limit.

Msweli said the City aimed for transparency with joint testing.

He said joint sampling had been done at Point Beach, uShaka, South Beach, North Beach, Battery Beach, Country Club, the river at Kingfisher Canoe Club, the river at Riverside and the river below the Northern Wastewater Treatment Works, and it would continue for a few months.

Their intention was to compare the results and educate the public about the processes of water testing, Msweli added.

As recently as the Heritage Day weekend, around 24 September, some of Durban's beaches reflected unsafe e.coli levels.

The KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape representative of the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa, Brett Tungay, said it was a difficult weekend for tourism in Durban due to the high e.coli levels and a lack of water supply in the area.

Earlier this year, News24 reported that an internal audit of the City's sanitation infrastructure, a memorandum to the City executive committee, warnings by officials in the sanitation department and a report by the DWS pointed to a collapse of its infrastructure.

Engineers warned that, if urgent maintenance and refurbishment were not carried out, the City's sanitation infrastructure would collapse, resulting in environmental and public health disasters.

The audit report, published in the middle of 2022, said the situation in the sanitation operations department was "dire and requires immediate attention from the highest spheres, failing which it can only result in complete collapse of all sanitation infrastructure in the short-term".