Residents are fed up with the municipality after three weeks of water interruptions.
Local DA councillor Mr Ken Robertson has been trying to resolve the situation, but to no avail. He contributes the problems to poor maintenance of municipal assets, lack of staff capacity, no intervention in critical times and a lack of staff oversight.
“Businesses such as laundromats are at risk of facing bankruptcy because they need clean water to function. Many of their clientele are lodges that have their linen washed at these laundromats. Car-wash owners also suffer as they cannot afford to purchase water at convenience stores. Many employ basic-skills employees and contribute greatly to Hazyview’s tourist ambience and its economy,” he stated.
He has found that insurance companies have reported an increase of 250 per cent for the replacement of geysers and the water damage caused to residents’ homes.
“Geysers are bursting and the damage runs into hundreds of thousands of rand per claim,” he continued.
He plans to investigate the possibility of forming independent water boards to manage bulk delivery and distribution of the town’s water, as well as a 24-hour call centre to document complaints.
These findings will either be presented to Mbombela Local Municipality to increase accountability, or the DA will use it to fulfil their promise to “represent all residents of Mbombela while we work towards accountability and better service delivery”.
Upon enquiry, municipal communications officer Ms Bessie Pienaar responded that the affected areas experienced shortages due to a broken submersible pump at the Sabie River raw water pump station, which has been fixed.
The Hippo Dam is used as a backup system to supplement the station in order to increase the main water source of the canal water, as it is currently under capacity.
She added that two defective submersible pumps had also been repaired and that water supply would resume after the pumps were brought back into operation.
