Brake Village residents blocked the main access road into Tongaat with burning tyres and debris this morning, protesting 51 days without water.

The area has been without potable water since the April floods.

Traffic on Watson Highway came to a near standstill as about 100 residents made their grievances heard.

Residents said water tankers had been sporadic, coming only once or twice a week. They claim the tankers were also half full and carrying dirty water.

“How can we be expected to live like this? You cannot even bath in that water,” said resident Neville Venkatsany, noting that Brake Village was made up of lower-class earners, who had little means of buying water to drink.

“There are 84-year-old women and men trying to grab 20-litre water bottles to take into their homes. It’s not fair, we pay our rates – all we want is running water in our homes.

He said the only aid that had reached them had come from Tongaat non-profit Haven of Rest.

Ward councillor Geoff Pullan said he was trying to get water tankers to deliver water today.

“I have been informed that the tankers are on their way,” said Pullan.

The councillor had a difficult time this morning, as residents directed their anger at him, accusing him of not fighting in their corner to get services.

The road has since been reopened.

The North Coast Courier reported earlier that recent floods in the province would delay the restoration of the oThongathi water treatment plant.

Earlier this month sugar producer Tongaat Hulett agreed to manage the repair process at the treatment plant in conjunction with eThekwini municipality.

Tongaat Hulett’s head of communications, Virginia Horsley, said that a contractor had been appointed to repair the syphon dam’s damaged wall and raw water supply pipe at a cost of about R15-million.

The eThekwini municipality said major repairs were expected to take months at an estimated cost of R30-million.

As an interim solution, the municipality had intensified water delivery through additional water tankers, and more static tanks would be added to the current 42.