Page 184 - UGU Dstrct Mun IDP Report '21-22

Limited Information Communications Technology (ICT)
ICT plays a critical role in the vastly digitalising world. Technology is upgrading rapidly, and the district needs to keep up with the pace which is costly. Due to the current economic condition the ICT infrastructure budget is shrinking and that poses a huge challenge in the day to day running of the municipality.
Cross Cutting Interventions
Slow Intake of Management Trainees
There is human resource capacity challenge with regards to Disaster Management in the district. The District Disaster Management Unit is providing disaster management training to mitigate the challenge; however, the trainees are not absorbed by the local municipalities.
Limited Disaster Management Funding at a Local Level.
Emergency relief needs to be provided to victims of disasters that occur in the district. The challenge is that the budget for emergency relief is limited at the local level which places extra burden at
the district level. Furthermore, this sometime causes unnecessary delays in providing victims with assistance.
Slow Housing Provision for Disaster Victims.
The housing provision for disaster victims is slow and as a result the victims don’t get relief speedily. The process for disaster victims should be fast tracked by the Department of Human Settlements.
Outdated and Insufficient environmental strategies
The IWMP is outdated and is not directly aligned to the Integrated Waste Management Act of 2009. The Environmental Outlook Report needs to be developed
Lack of commitment towards biodiversity management and community initiatives
The municipality needs to have a strategy to manage feral animals that threaten the domestic animals and invade the agricultural lands. The initiatives that are being implemented are not strategic and not sufficient. The municipality needs to commit funds to this course in order to ensure that
the biodiversity does not negatively affect local economic development and food security initiative. Hence, the need for the Feral animal strategy needs to be prioritised.
Insufficient and inconsistent compliance with environmental requirements by Water Services projects
Compliance with EIA Regulations has improved over the years with new and existing developments. Compliance with the environmental authorisations conditions is still a serious challenge and needs compliance monitoring. Pollution of estuarine and riverine environments by municipal effluent is symptomatic of lack of compliance with environmental, health and wastewater regulation standards.
182 UGU DISCTRICT MUNICIPALITY