Endumeni residents hot under the collar as water cuts continue as temperatures soar

Endumeni continues to suffer from continuous water cuts as an unprecedented heat wave has left residents thirsting.

While Endumeni has grown accustomed to water shedding, with many areas suffering daytime outages due to the capacity of the Biggarsberg Water Treatment plant not being upgraded to cope with the rapid growth in population, the latest crisis has left many upper-lying areas without water for days on end.

In other areas near the Dundee Hospital, residents reported having water in their taps only two hours a day in the mornings.

Lower-lying areas are not as hard hit as the gravity flow gives them access to water.

Glencoe residents have long been agonising over water cuts as has Wasbank while in some parts of Sibongile, residents said they had not had access to running water for five months.

However, the heat wave which has seen temperatures soar into the upper thirties has left residents more angry than ever.

A last communique from Umzinyathi said there was a problem at the Biggarsberg Plant exacerbated by four of the eight filters been out of commission due to being serviced. This has led to discoloured water in taps.

The pumps at the Tayside station – sources said only one was running at the moment but this has been verified – have also been problematic.

A new danger is the rapid drop in the Buffalo River from where Endumeni extracts water. This has also led to shortages in Newcastle. Water Affairs have said water will be released from the Chelmsford dam that would eventually flow into to Buffalo River.

Hope are that this will ease the crisis. FC Bester of the Endumeni Residents’ Association said he had previous meetings with Umzinyathi to seek solutions and the biggest problem was the funding needed to upgrade the infrastructure.