Durban - A call has been made to eThekwini’s deputy mayor, who is also the chairperson of the committee responsible for water, for his team to conduct site visits to Shallcross, Crossmoor, Northdene and other areas affected by water outages.
The areas have had intermittent water supply since the April floods that damaged reservoir 3 at the Durban Heights Water Treatment Works, owned by Umgeni as well as eThekwini’s two aqueducts.
ADeC leader, councillor Visvin Reddy, said: “eThekwini is not sharing the load equally.”
Reddy said the bulk supplier of water to Durban, Umgeni Water, is still supplying 500 megalitres of water, short of 40 megalitres.
“The municipality has to share this shortfall with the entire area so that all residents may receive a fair distribution of water. Instead, some areas get 100% supply while others do not.
“The responsibility of sharing the water volumes lies with the municipality. I am told that some reservoirs are critically low. Why is this being allowed to happen?”
Reddy called on deputy mayor and his committee to conduct site visits “to get to the bottom of why some areas are constantly experiencing water outages, but others not. Our people deserve answers and to be told the truth”.
“If we are watershedding, let us know so we can plan our lives accordingly.”
Shallcross extension one resident Pam Singh was concerned as they have not had a drop of water since Sunday night.
“We are suffering … the call centre doesn’t tell you much. It’s an absolute nightmare and now we read that we will only get water in September or December.”
Singh asked: “Why when they are water shedding is the water not spread out to different the areas?”
She said there needed to be a fair distribution of the available water as well as the provision of tankers.
“There’s no equality here with no officials coming here to even bother to see what is going on.”
Singh was referring to a communiqué with Umgeni Water’s letterhead, detailing updates on Durban Height’s reservoir 3, stating: “The tender was appealed by one of the bidders. The matter has now been resolved through a court order effective from June 10. Umgeni Water anticipates having this project completed in December 2022.”
Neither confirming nor denying the communiqué, Umgeni spokesperson Shami Harichunder said the latest details would be issued on Wednesday.
Daily News