The irate residents of Tongaat have expressed great frustration over the ongoing water shortage issues being experienced, on and off, throughout the community.
Friday, 11 February, marked five days since the residents were left without running water. With both the heat and tempers soaring, the residents spared no remorse as they voiced how disappointed they are with eThekwini Municipality.
Belvedere resident, Vanitha Naidoo, said Tongaat has been facing water interruptions for the past few months. “We didn’t have a good Christmas nor New Year, due to this water crisis. Currently we are facing interruptions for over five days. We do get water at night which leads us to think that the fault is rectified, however, during the day we don’t receive any water.”
Naidoo described the situation as ‘terrible’. “I am 66 years old. It isn’t easy for me to carry such heavy buckets of water. I just finished filling and carrying five big buckets of water. Another issue we face is that many people leave for work in the morning without having a cup of tea or even a bath.”
Another resident of Belvedere, who wished to remain anonymous, said he lives with his mother and sister who is under treatment for renal failure. “Since 25 December last year there has been a shortage of water in our area. The water shuts off randomly without notice and not everyone keeps water for emergencies and sometimes there aren’t even enough tankers for us to fill our buckets. The kind of communication we get from the Municipality is that ‘the reservoir is empty’ or ‘the pumps aren’t working’. But this has been going on for months.”
The resident said during the outage, the road he lives on did not receive a water tanker for 24 hours as there were not enough tankers and only the main roads were serviced. “My sister’s condition requires her to have a constant flow of clean water. She needs to ensure her hands are clean and all her equipment is sterile. If there is a problem with the water she can get an infection. The lack of water makes this very difficult.”
Community activist, Jay Lovey Govender, said the water issue in Tongaat has reached boiling point. “This daily shut-off is causing huge problems for our old and frail folks. We have bedridden patients and in this unbearable heat wave, we can’t even practise decent hygienic care.”
Govender said they met with they deputy mayor and his delegation a few days ago. “We appreciated the time they afforded us, but clearly the problem we face is beyond all of them. It was the usual ‘no money, can’t afford security, vandalism to reservoirs and ageing infrastructure’. All of which we know already. We are seeking legal advice on our way forward. Clearly our constitutional rights have been violated. We are also denied the truth. No two reasons we receive are the same. We feel victimised in Belvedere. People all around us are in a better stead. We need answers. I told the deputy mayor that we aren’t looking for favours, we want what we are paying for. Also, keep us in the loop with facts, no fabrications or some unbelievable concoction like ‘the valve was wrongly placed’ or ‘someone forgot to open the valve’. Pathetic excuses even kids don’t believe,” Govender said.
Ward 61 Councillor, Dolly Munien, said if the water supply will be shut off she informs residents in advance, however, there are challenges regarding the number of water tankers servicing the community.
“There are very few tankers, especially when the entire community is out waiting for water. Providing me with just two tankers isn’t going to assist much. If theres 96 units in one block of flats and one tanker that holds 5000 litres, by the time that area is serviced the tanker is empty. There is also the informal settlements that need to be serviced.”
Cllr Munien said the community also needs to contact the call centre so that they are aware of the number of people and areas without water and can therefore provide more tankers. “If residents give me their reference numbers, I can then act on that. Another problem is drivers of water tankers will service an area until the truck is empty and they don’t refill to service the rest of the community.”
The eThekwini Municipality did not comment by the time of going to print. Residents are urged to contact the Water Department and report water outages on 080-131-3013.
