Water-less residents shut off pumps to make other areas suffer too

Residents of Forderville and some parts of town were left without water today (March 20).

This followed reports that uThukela workers were not working and were allegedly prevented from entering the gate at the Archie Rodell Water Treatment Works by angry community members who then shut off the water pumps at the reservoir. It seems that they want other community members to suffer without water like they are.

It is alleged that this group of community members want uThukela employees who are working in Estcourt to be taken to work in other areas like Ladysmith and Bergville. Security at the water treatment plant told the Estcourt News that, “No one is working here; the workers were told to go back home by people who were at the gate.’’

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Residents in the affected areas are frustrated, as they had to endure water shortages last week. They were allegedly told by uThukela that the problem was fixed and they would receive water, not knowing that another outage would hit them today.

The community is worried that they will spend the public holiday (March 21) with dry taps.

Attempts to reach uThukela for comment were unsuccessful, as the communication manager’s cellphone was not answered.

As per usual, the Al-Imdaad Foundation came to the rescue. Their tanker drove around town and Forderville to fill residents’ containers with water.

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