The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has deployed 1 482 water tanks across Gauteng to provide water-deprived communities with sufficient water during the Covid-19 pandemic.
About 410 water tanks have been made available to the City of Joburg, 190 to the City of Tshwane and 166 to the City of Ekurhuleni amid efforts to make water accessible to communities that continue to face water shortages.
The Sedibeng district and West Rand district municipalities received 254 and 462 respectively.
The department is also partnering with other stakeholders to provide soap and sanitisers to communities to enable them to practice proper hygiene.
Meanwhile, Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has warned municipalities to refrain from cutting off water supply as government scrambles to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The appeal comes against the background of thousands of frantic callers to the call centre of the DWS who complain about municipalities who have cut off water supply to residents who are in arrears or for no apparent reason. Most of the complaints were from Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng,” the DWS said in a statement.
“I appeal to municipalities who are guilty of this practice to switch on the water supply immediately. This is not the time to be punishing our people for failing to pay their water bills. We must all rally around the government’s call to wash our hands frequently in order for us to defeat the scourge of Covid-19,” Sisulu said.