Kouga Municipality Mayor, Horatio Hendricks, says while the history of the municipality was bleak, the future remains hopeful.
Delivering his State of the Municipality address on Tuesday, Hendricks said the Municipality managed to make headway on a R1 billion sanitation service backlog, and a high debtor’s book with long-term loans that far exceeded what it could afford to pay.
In a wide-ranging speech, Hendricks said they would focus, among other things, on water and energy security.
"We want to develop a 60-megawatt renewable energy plant, with appropriate storage, considering Kouga's current Notifiable Maximum Demand of 59.1 megawatts," he said.
"No decision has been made on the renewable energy applications and all proven technologies will be reviewed, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, wind power, gas, and biomass. A comprehensive environmental impact assessment will ultimately determine the renewable energy mix, also considering Kouga's natural resources," Hendricks added.
On informal settlements, he said the Housing Development Agency (HDA) is in the process to appoint Kouga Municipality as an implementing agent to address the formalisation of the nine informal settlements in Kouga.
“The first phase will be to address the bulk infrastructure challenges within the nine informal settlements, and this will be funded through the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Partnership Grant.”
The mayor says the proposed amount is estimated at R203 million over the current and two "outer years".
“The grant will address bulk infrastructure such as water, sewage, sanitation, and electricity.”
While on water security he says a professional geohydrologist will be appointed for a period of three years to manage boreholes.
This, as two of the four plants for the purification of borehole water, have already been completed.
He says the first plant was built at the Humansdorp water treatment works and will not only significantly improve the quality of the borehole water by removing iron and manganese through a chemical process, but it will also produce up to 6 Megalitres of clean water per day feeding to the reservoir.
“The second plant at the Jeffreys Bay water treatment works will add an additional 4Ml of water to the existing reservoir.
“The two plants at Hankey and St Francis Bay will be completed by the end of this month – each providing 2ML water per day.”
