Blythedale’s water woes may soon be over

Ilembe district municipality is laying a new pipeline that they say will stabilise Blythedale’s water supply.

This news comes in the wake of a flood of dissatisfaction from the town’s residents, who claim to have been experiencing frequent water cuts since long before the current drought and blame a lack of maintenance.

Business have incurred losses as they have had to refund customers or cease work on account of not having water.

Radha Ramkellawan who works at the Beach Shack restaurant said they have to shut their doors every time the water stops flowing and they are losing customers.

Thokozani guest house owner, Alida Smit, said she lost R25 000 in December and another R6 000 in January in refunds paid out to guests checking out early because there was no water.

Another guesthouse is believed to have paid out a R7 750 refund to guests in January.

“What is the point of having a blue flag beach if tourists cannot stay here,” said local bottle store owner Lynette Le Clus.

Bell Accommodation’s Lisa O’ Mant, who also runs a domestic service business, said her staff had to use swimming pool water to clean clients’ homes, leading to sub-standard service.

She has set up a 25 litre water container with a small hose in the office bathroom to supply water for a flushing toilet that she and her cleaning staff use.

The town has at times been without water for days and water was delivered by municipal water tankers.

Highly frustrated resident, Fred Hayden spent R7 000 on a tank and pump to stabilise the water supply to his home and thinks the service they received from Ilembe municipality was pathetic.

“I am paying rates but there is no service. The municipality spent R2,5 million on a new lifeguard tower but they cannot maintain a water pump,” he said.

A number of residents highlighted the problems they have been experiencing trying to get through to the municipality’s call centre.

They said nobody answers the phone and on the odd occasion that someone did, they always got the same response – a problem with the pump or a power failure.

“The pumps are 15 years old and regular maintenance is not done. The water pumps are only supposed to have a five year lifespan,” said Hayden.

The municipality responded in a media statement, stating that they are currently upgrading Blythedale’s water supply system as part of the Municipal Water Infrastructure Grant implementation project.

The project that had initially been delayed due to a lack of funding, began in August 2014 and will end in May this year.

The municipality admitted that the project was two weeks behind schedule but said the contractor was implementing an acceleration programme to ensure they are back on schedule within the next month.

“The system (excluding the pumps which are two years old) is 30 years old and pipes and all the other infrastructure have served their useful life. No matter how well you maintain them, they will break,” said the press release.

They added that the power to the pumps was very erratic and tripped often.

A new reservoir has already been built and the municipality said the high tank that showed a few cracks will be sealed and rehabilitated.

The municipality stated that until the completion of the upgrade, they will remain fully committed to carrying out repairs as quickly as possible.