Water supply to Laudium restored

Water supply to Laudium was restored this week even though an urgent interdict compelling the Tshwane metro and Rand Water to return supply to the area being struck off the roll.

“Community members brought an urgent interdict to compel the Tshwane municipality and Rand Water to supply them with water on Friday,” said local ward councillor Mahomed Essop.

“The judge ruled it was not urgent and struck the matter from the roll; however, water supply was nevertheless restored on Saturday.”

Essop’s ward includes Laudium, Claudius, Erasmia and Itireleng.

Nari Patel, a resident of Laudium and secretary of the residents’ association, said the association and two old age homes approached the court for assistance in this respect, “as we have been denied the basic right to water”.

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Parties cited were the mayor of Tshwane; Rand Water CEO; the premier of Gauteng; and the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu.

“We were not getting answers. Authorities were going back and forth, blaming each other for the problems we were facing,” Patel said.

“Tshwane metro utility services and operations MMC Phillip Nel visited us a couple of times and tried to assist, to no avail. Environment, forestry and fisheries MEC Barbara Creecy then released a statement and more meetings between role-players followed.”

According to Mchunu, “the dire situation the residents faced was unacceptable”.

“The minister said access to water is a fundamental and a constitutional right and instructed that immediate action be taken. And as a result, the supply of water to this area was rectified with immediate effect,” Creecy said.

DA councillor Dumisani Twala said, “the water situation has been stabilised”.

“We are currently not experiencing any problems with supply, but consumption is high and the metro is monitoring reservoir levels,” said Twala.

Rekord reported last week that Laudium residents blocked the R55 over water interruptions with rocks on Monday afternoon as large parts of Laudium were still without water after five days by then.

Towards the end of last week, the metro established that the water levels in the reservoirs supplying Laudium, Atteridgeville and surrounding areas were critically low.

The metro engaged with their colleagues at Rand Water, who indicated they were having water supply challenges but that it would be rectified soon, said MMC Phillip Nel.

Nel said by Saturday, the situation had not been resolved and it required a high-level engagement with the minister, premier and the mayor.

“It was agreed that Rand Water teams would address this issue to ensure that pressure levels should be sustained. Since we started encountering these issues, we have not had formal communication or notice from Rand Water to assist us in warning our residents of the shortages,” Nel said.

Meanwhile, Tshwane remains under strict water restrictions and residents were urged to save water by only watering gardens between 06:00 and 18:00, not washing vehicles with hosepipes and not filling any swimming pools.

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