The Durban North and uMhlanga community blasted the eThekwini Municipality’s decision to restrict water and said this would only exacerbate their existing water challenges.
Together with the Umngeni-Uthukela Water Board, the eThekwini Municipality revealed that the City will undergo water restrictions of 8.4% from Thursday, 10 October.
Umhlanga Ratepayers and Residents Association (URRA) chairperson Terri MacLarty said that Umhlanga and North Durban have been severely affected by the water issues for the past year now and this curtailment, just before high season, was disastrous.
MacLarty said, “We are already seeing tourism declining at an unprecedented rate and this results in job losses, economic losses, and property values continually dropping. Tourists are reluctant to visit in anticipation of water cuts. The URRA feels that the local government has really dropped the ball and demands further investigation into the non-revenue water wasted.”
She added that eThekwini must monitor and measure illegally connected water and there must be urgent intervention in water infrastructure repairs as makeshift repairs are costing the eThekwini Water Services (EWS) millions and not achieving any results.
MacLarty added that they are constantly in discussion with eThekwini’s Head of Water and Sanitation, Ednick Msweli, in this regard.
Ward 36 Councillor, Heinz de Boer said that such metre restrictions were not warranted and called for the municipality to look at Pressure Reducing Valves (PRVs) as they are meant to reduce pressure and take the strain off the pipes, and take strain off the unrobust plastic water metres. De Boer also advised the government to fix the telemetry at all reservoirs as this burst has been ongoing for years, in order to help controllers with an indication of what the reservoir levels are.
Ward 34 Councillor Andrew Akkers added that these water restrictions are not a surprise to his ward as they have been experiencing daily outages for a few months due to the Effingham Reservoir closing every evening to build capacity. Akkers said, “Many of our roads are without water from 9pm, and water is only restored around 9am the next morning. The ageing infrastructure and daily major burst pipes resulting in 1000’s of litres of water running down the drains is more of a concern.”
Akkers said they would like to know when a total upgrade of the water pipes from the current asbestos/cement pipes to UPVC pipes are going to be implemented “and not the patch work and temporary/band aid solutions that is being seen”
During a recent council meeting, eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba said the curtailment will be for a period of 12 months and urged residents to use water sparingly so that they could assist in reducing high-level consumption.
In a recent briefing, Xaba said, “We are meeting every Friday to receive reports and assess the progress on the infrastructure upgrading and repair projects that are currently underway. We will be starting to conduct these meetings on site, in water reservoirs that are giving us challenges, starting from the northern areas. Our intention is to quickly resolve identified challenges in our water and sanitation infrastructure.”
