The water crisis is deepening but not because of a lack of water availability.
The illegal abstraction of water from the Buffalo River and other diversions are causing havoc with supplies in Dundee and Glencoe. Luiz Cunha of uThukela Water – which controls the bulk supply of water in the area – said Water Affairs last Thursday released 20 000 cubic metres of water from Chelmsford dam to ease the crisis in Endumeni. From there the water flows into the Ingagane River and then into the Buffalo River where water is pumped to the Biggarsberg Water Treatment works from the Tayside pumping station. According to Mr Cunha, dams upstream have 85% content, so availability is not a problem. “it’s that the water gets lost before it reaches us,” he said. When the level falls too low at Tayside, the pumps start tripping, and then kick out.
Pradeep Ramlal of Umzinyathi District Municipality, who are responsible for the reticulation of water to Dundee and Glencoe, said the pumps shutting down has had a devastating effect on water reserves at the plant.
“This has forced us to immediately restrict the supply to Dundee, for up to three hours or longer, to allow the reservoir to build up reserves. Load shedding from Eskom at Tayside also cripples the supply. We are monitoring the situation and are investigating the causes of the water loss from the Buffalo River.”
The higher parts of both Dundee (north of Ethangeni School) and Glencoe (towards the Prison area) are badly affected while the lower parts of Dundee have never been cut off which has led to some acrimony from residents who believe the restrictions are unfair. Some residents say they will only pay a portion of their water bill as they are not getting a full service while other parts of town do.