The Garden Route is celebrating a milestone reached in grant funding, of over R15 million, in efforts towards firefighting.
The amount was provided by the Western Cape Provincial Government (WCG), Department of Local Government (DLG), Directorate Fire & Rescue and Disaster Management’s Fire Services, to the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM).
Deon Stoffels, Fire Chief, at the Garden Route District Municipality, said “the purpose of capacity building ensures that the GRDM’s emergency capacity, mobilization, response and mitigation systems are of a standard that meets the region’s risks. This also ensures that the GRDM at a Local Government level, builds enough capacity to assist with fire and disaster management responses across the region at local municipalities.”
Stoffels said for the current and next financial year, an amount if R7, 2m, will be used to build a flood response unit, with various containerised equipment caches, including a hovercraft, and an overhead housing facility.
In addition, an additional R1 million will be made available for hazardous material equipment, mobile units.
An amount of about R 1,2 million will be g towards water services.