EThekwini water shedding a failure, says DA

THE Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini will be calling for a discussion on water losses at the next sitting of the Human Settlements and Infrastructure Committee.

According to Councillor Martin Meyer, spokesman for Human Settlements and Infrastructure, the huge amount of water losses currently plaguing the city due to the increase in burst pipes in all parts of the city is a major concern.

“There has been a marked increase in the number of burst pipes all over the city since eThekwini instituted the so-called 'watershedding' where the water supply is turned off between 9pm and 4am daily. The Water Department has acknowledged that there is a clear link between the shutdowns and the increase in burst pipes. While the DA understands the severity of the drought and fully supports measures to decrease the water usage in the city, the current method of cutting off water has had the opposite effect as thousands of litres of water, if not more, is now being lost,” said Meyer.

He said some wards in and around eThekwini are now suffering from daily burst pipes leaving residents without water for hours, if not days at an end. This has been reported to him by councillors from various parts of the city.

“The DA warned the city of this when these measures were first discussed in council. eThekwini’s ageing and ill-maintained water infrastructure are just not able to handle these shutdowns, leading to the current problem, a problem that is worsening the water shortages,” he said.

Meyer said the DA is also alarmed that residents will now be expected to pay a further water levy, which he said is basically punishing residents while the main offender for water wastage, the municipality itself, passes the buck onto the consumer.

“The goal all political parties should be striving for is to unite behind saving water, the city must revisit this approach as the current increased water loss is not sustainable. It is time to explore other options that will actually achieve the aim of saving water,” he said.

Meyer said the municipality should be instituting severe fines for people wasting water, limiting the water residents are allowed to use for watering gardens, filling pools and washing cars and should implement water harvesting at all municipal buildings and take steps to encourage residents to also make use of water harvesting at their homes.

“The DA will continue engaging on this issue in order to protect the already overburdened citizens from paying for the city’s failure plan,” said Meyer.