“Water is a human right”

A group of Stanger residents have banded together to help large parts of the town that have been without water for a week. With the Umvoti River close to empty and the pumps sucking on sand since the start of July, more than 10 000 people have been affected as the drought shows no signs of loosening its grip.

While others complain, point fingers and wait for the government to solve the water crisis, a group of concerned Muslims have been delivering water to families in Glenhills and Townview every night since last Wednesday after the taps ran dry on July 11.

“Some people have boreholes and whoever has excess or access to water came together to help out,” said Ismail Gori, one of the coordinators.  He said they were using five privately-owned bakkies and two trucks and the daily water run took about three hours every night to complete.

“We are all human. It is not about who or what you are and if we as a community stand together, anything is possible,” said Gori.

The Ilembe district municipality has repeatedly dug into the Umvoti River bed to channel any water towards the Umvoti Water Works extraction point near Melville.

The North Coast Courier visited the extraction plant on Thursday, July 14 and saw that the water level was so low that some of the pumps no longer reach the water.

As a result the plant’s water production has dropped from the normal 18 million litres a day to eight, and there is not enough water to meet the needs of Stanger and surrounding areas.

On July 4, close to 10 000 consumers, including households and businesses in the Stanger CBD and the surrounding areas of Highridge, Warrenton, Stanger Manor, Townview, Rocky Park, Shakaville, Lindelani, Lot 16, Memory Lloyds, Doesburg, Mbozambo, Stanger Heights, New Guelderland and Glenhills were without water for a day.

On July 11 taps in Glenhills, Townview, Stanger Heights, Stanger Manor and Rocky Park ran dry again and people have since neither received water from taps nor municipal water trucks.

Environmentalists believe that the large number of illegal sand-mining operations in the Umvoti and feeder streams and rivers have contributed significantly towards the failure of the river system.Criminal cases were opened against 21 illegal sand miners last December, but the cases are still with the National Prosecuting Authority and the mining continues unabated.

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