Northdene water woes continue
Water outages have continued to frustrate Northdene and Moseley residents since 2022.
RESIDENTS of Northdene say they fear that the return of load-shedding could spell disaster for water outages in the area.
Since 2022, water outages have affected both Northdene and Moseley with residents going as much as eight days at a time without water.
The intermittent or limited supply is due, in part, to electricity outages and load-shedding affecting booster water pumps at the Firwood Reservoir.
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Last month, residents met with the Queensburgh News to voice their frustrations over the battle for water.
According to residents, the load-shedding rotation of two hours sometimes means the water pumps don’t automatically restart again, leaving them without water for a prolonged period.
John Frazer, a pensioner in the area, said residents recently came off a 12-day outage.
“It affects every aspect of life. You can’t shower, wash clothes and dishes or flush toilets – as some of the basics. If you can’t get to a water tanker, you end up having to buy bottles of water at your own cost. It is also costly to take clothing to the laundromat to wash. While some people have friends and family they could possibly visit to shower and use water, not everyone has that. My daughter actually has recorded a timeline of the various outages since the floods in 2022.
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“At the time after the April floods, we were without water for close to 20 days, and since then, it’s ranged from three to eight days. I do think the ward councillor, Chris van den Berg, does try his best, but he can’t physically control the situation. With the announcement that load-shedding is back, we, as residents, are concerned because those two-hour blackouts do affect the booster pumps. There is a bit of trepidation from the residents’ point of view. We hope that the City will find a solution to this because we cannot go on like this,” the 74-year-old said.
In March, the City hosted a stakeholder engagement with ratepayer associations at the Moses Mabhida Stadium and outlined various medium- to long-term projects that the Water and Sanitation Unit is implementing as part of infrastructure upgrades to improve water supply capacity.
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“The installation of pressure management valves, together with dysfunctional meter replacements and the incorporation of technology to enhance meter accuracy, are other measures being implemented. The repair of the 24km Southern Aqueduct is expected to start before the end of March,” explained eThekwini City manager Musa Mbhele.
“The City anticipates improvement of water supply within 12 months while other phases will continue for the next two years. This pipeline will bring much-needed relief to downstream areas in the south,” he said.
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