Dry taps anger iLembe residents

Dissatisfied residents of KwaDukuza stormed into the Ilembe District Municipality office in KwaDukuza last Thursday complaining about ongoing water outages in their areas.

The affected areas are Blythedale, Stanger Manor, Doesberg, Warrenton, High Ridge, Lindelani, New Guelderland and Mbozamo, which have suffered dry taps for weeks at a time since October.

Residents staged a peaceful demonstration and handed over their memorandum to municipal manager Geoffrey Kumalo.

They accused the municipality of using unqualified workers and contractors and of failing to maintain the pumps.

The memorandum claims the water interruptions began in New Guelderland on October 21, where water outages would occur between two and three times a week.

From November 1 until December 4 there was no water at all and residents decided to protest, burning tyres and blockading the R102.

The residents claim it was only after the protest that the municipality sent water tankers.

ALSO READ: New water line for KwaDukuza to alleviate water interruptions

“The water they sent was not enough and usually came late at night, when senior citizens were already sleeping,” the memorandum stated.

The Pat Bodasingh area reportedly did not receive water via a tanker for two weeks and relied on non-profit organisation Crime Stop Ukukusiza that delivered water daily.

Water was returned by December 4, but since December 11 the taps are dry once more.

At the same time district mayor Siduduzo Gumede was addressing the media on the issue, where he promised that the water woes were almost over, with R17 million being spent on overhauling aging infrastructure.

“The municipality has developed a long term intervention plan to reduce the ageing infrastructure and the challenges thereof.”

He said eight projects were underway including two new pump stations and new pipelines between numerous reservoirs: the pump station at the Umvoti balancing reservoir, a pipeline between Umvoti balancing reservoir and the Kearsney reservoir, a pump station at Kearsney reservoir, a pipeline between Kearsney and Stanger Manor reservoirs and a pipeline between Stanger Manor, High Ridge, Warrenton reservoir, the High Ridge reservoir and Shakaville reservoir.

“These projects are 95 percent complete. We were hoping that they would be completed by December 20, but due to the rains we have been delayed and will now be completed by early 2020. Once the project is completed and commissioned, the old infrastructure will not be used,” said Gumede.

He added that the district previously hired water tankers but would now be using their own after buying 30 water tankers.

“We had reports that the tankers were not arriving in certain areas. Now that we own our own vehicles we will be able to monitor this more closely.”

Affected areas

• Doesberg: Sporadic water outages are ongoing, with the taps staying dry for two weeks in October and throughout November. The tanker came only once on November 2.

• Lindelani: The area had no water for three weeks in November and December.

• Warrenton: Sporadic water outages since October and last week there was no water at all.

• Glenhills: Murugan Road, Townview Road, Venus Drive, C Section and Happy Valley were severely affected by sporadic water cuts with reportedly no tankers sent to these areas.

• Blythedale: The small town has been plagued by water outages since October and once had no water for seven days, of which the tanker only arrived on two days. A substantial number of the residents are elderly and unable to carry their own water. Private security companies apparently came to their rescue. The residents were told the new reservoir would be ready at the beginning of December but this was not the case.

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