Water shortage frustrates community members
uThukela say they have plans to provide the community with water tankers and plead with the people to be patient
Community members who live at the hostel in the IKhwezi area are forced to take their washing all the way to the nearest small river.
There is currently a prolonged water shortage in the area. The residents say they last tasted water from their taps about two to three weeks ago.
The leader of the hostel community, Sizwe Mbhele, told the Estcourt News that they have indeed been without water for a few weeks and people are at the end of their tether.
“This situation is very disturbing in many ways. If you go into a toilet, you will actually see how big our problem is,’’ Mbhele lamented.
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Some community members who were fetching water and doing their washing in the nearby river also spoke to the Estcourt News and shared their concerns. “We use water from the river to cook, bathe and wash clothes, but we don’t drink the water,” said one resident.
uThukela communications manager Jabulani Mkhonza commented that the district municipality is currently facing problems with broken water pumps, which prevents the distribution of water to the IKhwezi area.
“The reason why this area doesn’t have water is that two water pumps at the Archie Rodell Water Treatment Works are broken,” said Mkhonza.
He elaborated that the motors inside the pumps don’t work. “When these pumps broke, we removed the broken motors to send them to be repaired. One of them is now completely fixed and the other one they are still busy with, but we can’t install one motor and leave the other one out. When they are both fixed, we are ready to appoint a service provider who will install them for us,” Mkhonza concluded.
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