Community leaders in Glencoe are demanding urgent clarity over ongoing water shortages, amid allegations that the town’s reservoir is being drained through a pipeline supplying a private business in Dundee.

For years, residents have endured dry taps despite water being pumped from the Biggarsberg Water Works in Dundee to the Glencoe reservoir near the Correctional Services complex.

Dramatic drop in reservoir levels

Jacques Greyvenstein, who monitors the reservoir levels, said he observed a sharp and unexplained decline.

“The level dropped alarmingly from around 50% to less than 5% over a short period,” he said.

He explained that the reservoir supplies Glencoe town, Sithembile and feeds a pipeline to Wasbank. Higher-lying areas in Glencoe are worst affected when levels fall, as water cannot reach the tower designed to provide gravity-fed supply.

Concerned about the rapid depletion, Greyvenstein and Willie Steenberg of the Endumeni Residents Association investigated further. They identified another pipeline running from the reservoir towards the vicinity of Sarel Cilliers High School and beyond.

“There is a meter on the pipeline, but when I asked whether it was being read and whether the end user was billed, a new meter was suddenly installed,” Greyvenstein alleged.

Residents began monitoring the replacement meter and claim readings increased from 495 cubic metres to 1 876 cubic metres in just under a month.

“That is a substantial volume of water leaving the reservoir while hardworking residents go without supply for days,” Steenberg said.

He further alleged that the meter appears to be switched on and off without a fixed schedule or consultation.

The Umzinyathi District Municipality had not responded to queries at the time of publication.