After several communities in Durban experienced water shortages over the past week, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has urged the City Manager, Musa Mbhele, to convene a roundtable meeting to address the water supply crisis.
The affected areas include parts of Glenwood, Hillcrest, uMlazi, Kloof, Phoenix, Chatsworth and Amanzimtoti, which have been without water for over a week.
Thabani Mthethwa, DA caucus leader, said: “The latest water crisis comes after Mayor Cyril Xaba promised interventions, including thorough investigations, to tackle the ongoing water supply issues in eThekwini.”
Mthethwa said that the DA has written to the city manager and the mayor to arrange an urgent meeting between DA ExCo members, the uMgeni-uThukela Water Board and eThekwini Water and Sanitation.
“We hope that this meeting will lead to a speedy solution to ease the frustration of the city’s ratepayers. We expect an urgent reply with a confirmed date for the meeting from the relevant stakeholders. We also aim to provide feedback to the affected residents of the city,” said Mthethwa.
He emphasised that the DA is committed to fighting to ensure that the people of the city are afforded their rights as enshrined in the country’s democratic constitution.
In the meantime, the eThekwini Municipality’s Communications Unit issued a statement announcing that field investigations were underway to identify major leaks, bursts and open scour valves along the bulk mains within the central region’s water distribution system.
The municipality acknowledged that efforts are being made to identify the factors contributing to the high water demand.
The increased demand in the central and south regions has significantly reduced the storage levels at Wiggins Water Treatment Works, negatively impacting the performance of the South Coast Augmentation Gravity and High-Pressure Pipelines, causing water outages and intermittent supply to dependent reservoirs.
To address this, eThekwini has decided to shut down some of the reservoir inlets and critical pump stations to reduce the high demand on the Wiggins Water Treatment Works, allowing storage levels to recover.
The municipality assured residents that water tankers would be provided during the investigations, while also advising the public to download eThekwini Municipality’s mobile app to log faults, send a WhatsApp message to 073-148-3477, call the toll-free number on 080-311-1111 or email Eservices@durban.gov.za for any concerns or reports.
