Water woes chase away holidaymakers
Residents had no water on Christmas Day and on Boxing Day.
UVONGO residents are angry about being deprived of their right to water. From the beginning of the holiday season some areas on the South Coast have experienced numerous water cuts.
Residents have accused Ugu District Municipality of keeping them in the dark as to why there is no water. One of the residents told the Herald that he had made numerous phone calls to the municipality’s call centre but to no avail.
“Ugu’s call centre is a joke,” said the angry resident. He said the calls were either unanswered or dropped. “I just want to find out where the problem is and how long it will take to fix it,” he said.
Another resident said she didn’t have water on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. “I had to use water from my swimming pool to flush the toilets – and I run a holiday home. I had guests booking out because of no water,” she said angrily.
She added that she had lost a lot of business as she had to refund all the guests who checked out.
Residents have had to buy water for the last five days. “Flushing the toilet has become a big issue; it is no longer a water crisis, it has now become a sanitation issue as well as a hygiene problem. How are we supposed to flush when there is no water. Ugu needs to do something because the municipality is failing its main service delivery which is providing water and sanitation for its community,” said another upset resident.
Ugu spokesman Sipho Khuzwayo has revealed that the Uvongo area had experienced a rather high demand for water during the past week. “This has resulted in the reservoir running dry during peak times,” he said.
“There have been subsequent breaks along the system which have unfortunately worsened the situation. Ugu’s technical team has been working 24/7 to balance the production and supply of water and to resolve any other technical faults that have been discovered,” he said.
He assured residents that this has paid off, as the system is now recovering gradually, though the high lying areas have been more affected and will take a bit longer to be fully restored.
