Elderly woman hurt while fetching water from uThukela

An elderly pensioner was hurt while collecting water from uThukela during prolonged water maintenance issues over the weekend. 77-year-old Mrs Hafiza Shaik, who lives in Khwaja Street in the Aloe Park area, is one of many furious residents who had to battle without water over the weekend while uThukela were carrying out emergency maintenance work at the Ezakheni Water Treatment Plant.

To make matters worse, she ended up hurting herself badly while filling a container with water from one of the water tankers on Sunday morning.

Stranded without water from Friday morning, Mrs Shaik needed water to take her medication, as well as sort out her household.

Only on Sunday morning did water tankers arrive in her street, but ended up parking quite a distance away from her house. So she and her children traipsed along with buckets to fill up with water.

As she was walking towards the truck, she lost her balance and fell, hitting her head on the hard road. She also bruised her knees and hands, and fractured her thumb.

People who saw this immediately rushed to help, carrying her back to her house, from where her children took her to hospital. In severe pain, Mrs Shaik is still shaken up and furious.

She told the Ladysmith Gazette that she believes uThukela did not think of the elderly, as they had to find their own way of fetching water to survive.

“What about the older people who cannot walk, if they have no family?

“How are they going to fetch water when the water trucks park so far away? This is unfair to us, especially the elderly people who depend on water.

“People, including me, are furious because uThukela take their own sweet time to help us when they cut off our water supply,” fumes Mrs Shaik.

Many people living in Aloe Park, as well as other areas, also complained to the Ladysmith Gazette regarding their “dry taps” and the apparent lack of interest from uThukela, who had no answers to their desperate pleas for water.