EThekwini water curtailment ‘lifted with immediate effect’
The eThekwini mayor, Cyril Xaba, has announced the lifting of water curtailment measures throughout the municipality amidst a growing outcry over the ongoing water crisis in the north and south of Durban. Xaba has called for an urgent Exco meeting on Friday, January 31, to discuss the water challenges.
JUST over three months after the eThekwini Municipality instituted its water curtailment plans, the city has “lifted” the water saving measures as they continue to get to grips with the ongoing crisis within the municipality.
EThekwini Mayor, Cyril Xaba, said that over the past three months, the municipality was inundated with calls from irate residents complaining about water challenges. Xaba said that on Christmas Day, he, the Minister of Water and Sanitation and the uMngeni-uThukela Water Board Members, convened an urgent meeting to discuss the crisis.
“In that meeting, we agreed that our water system has recovered somewhat to warrant the review of the water curtailment. The water curtailment was lifted with immediate effect. But we still have water supply challenges, now worse than before. I am convening an urgent executive committee (Exco) meeting on Friday to discuss this situation and our focus,” said Xaba.
Also Read: City clarifies water restrictor measures
The eThekwini Exco is scheduled to meet after the sitting of the full council tomorrow, January 30, at the Durban ICC. Xaba said the agenda of the Exco includes the listing of affected areas and communities that had water supply interruption in the last three months.
”The days the communities were without water, investigation and findings in each case, action taken and recommendations. Linked to this but not directly, we will review the way our call centres operate, to make them more effective and help the City to improve its turnaround time and become more efficient and responsive,” said Xaba.
Water curtailment measures came into effect on October 10 throughout the municipality. They were supposed to be in place for 12 months. The measures included the installation of restrictors in water meters to all consumers, pressure reduction in the reticulation network, metering all unmetered consumers, disconnection of illegal connection and an improvement on the turnaround time in repairing leaks and pipe bursts through deployment of ward-based plumbers.
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