The water crisis deepened yesterday with most of Dundee and parts of Glencoe without water from around 2.30pm.  Water started to trickle through again at around 7am but the higher parts of town were still without water.

While a huge storm would have brought some relief it proved to be cold comfort for residents.

Sources at uThukela Water in Newcastle – who control the bulk supply and Umzinyathi the reticulation – said load shedding over two days at Tayside, from where water is pumped from the Buffalo River to the Biggarsberg water works, had meant that the reservoir had become depleted.

“The low rains have resulted in our source water dropping dramatically.  Hence the water evening water cuts.  However, with load shedding cutting off the pumps for hours at a time, no water has been pumped from the Buffalo,” the source said.

However residents are upset that some parts of town get water while other part are cut.  “This is not entirely true,” said a technician, speaking on the promise of being able to stay anonymous.

“The whole town is cut.  However, gravity feeds the lower parts of town – eg.  Peacevale , lower Mpati etc – while the higher parts – from around Cornhill Street upwards are without because there is not enough pressure to feed the water uphill.”  Meantime, Biggars Street North residents in Glencoe continue to experience cuts of up to 20 hours ‘without any notices.’

Courier readers are up in arms and took to Facebook to vent:
Shalini Jogi‎

Drove passed a burst water pipe on Mckenzie Street this morning that looks like is has been like that the entire night. Can somebody please help as phoning uMzinyathi to report it has become a nightmare as nobody answers the phone.

Ronald Caldecott‎

No water, no electricity the countrys infrastructure is collapsing because of incompotent people in positions where they don’t even know what they are doing. We need opposition or private companys to come in and take over from these bunch of clowns.

Delmarie Kriel-Nel‎

This is absolutely ridiculous!!! We have to pay water accounts of R200 plus per month but half the time we don’t have water and now it is dirty!!! The story about drought is a fat lie bacause the Buffalo river has water and that’s where we pump our water from….no direct answers are given to us….please investigate this matter!!!! If UmZinyathi cannot do the job, please give it back to Uthekela. Atleast we had water and it was clean!!!!

Mason Rory Meyer‎

Between Eskoms load shedding and our so called water shortage this country is definately moving forward i hope the courier is investigating this water issue, We have have had a trickle out of our taps since about 5 o clock yesterday, phoned the municipality twice, they cant answer because apparently the people who are responsible for it are lying to the telephone operators so they dont even know what to tell us, so what the hell is actually going on, why do we pay these exorbitant rates and taxes and get this kind of service, i find it tough to believe that we cant have water for this long after having no problems for the previous 2 days then all of a sudden nothing!! Residents want answers and the people you get hold of at the municipality cant even answer.
Sharlene Williams‎

Strathmore is waterless!!!! upset emoticon yes dam is empty… But why can’t municipality make a plan???? We have to bath our kids and ourselves, make food, etc!!! Incompetence???? Its seriously ridiculous that some of dundee has water and some don’t…. Do they have a special dam???

Virosha Sewraj‎
The water! Oh my god! It is extremely bad!! It’s brown and nasty! What’s going on!!

Belinda Prinsloo
Whats up with the water cuts in Strathmore during the day??? Thought that the water only gets cut off during the night!!! Is there some sort of time table??? Can anyone shed some light on this subject??? — feeling frustrated.
2