Patience with Ugu has dried up

SHELLY Beach residents and surrounding businesses have been experiencing more unexpected water cuts. Shelly Centre businesses had to operate without water last weekend.

“The water cuts started on Friday,” said one irritated business owner. “We had to run our business without water, we couldn’t even go the toilet,” he added.

An angry resident of Hector Street in Shelly Beach said he didn’t have a drop of water for five days and nights. He said the community is literally fed up with Ugu.

“My family and I had to bath out of our swimming pool,” said the resident. He also voiced his frustrations with the Ugu call centre. “The community pays for a service, so Ugu should at least be in a position to answer its phones,” he said angrily.

He explained that when they do phone they get promised water in the next hour, and there is still no water two days later.

“It ludicrous and totally ridiculous. It’s an absolute joke, and someone should lose their job over this,” he said.

Ugu spokesman Sipho Khuzwayo said Ugu would like to apologise to the Shelly Beach community that experienced a three-day water shortage last week. He said it was due to a major pipe burst near the reservoir on the main outlet of the Shelly Beach area.

He said the municipality noticed a decline in the levels of the Shelly Beach Reservoir in the early hours of Thursday. A team was sent to investigate and fix the burst pipe.

“The team finished the job just after midnight on Friday and, on completion of this job, another pipe burst was detected in the same vicinity due to high pressure. This unfortunately elongated the restoration period, highly affecting the high-lying areas,” said Mr Khuzwayo.

“While work was being done on the ground, Ugu dispatched water tankers to the affected areas for water relief,” he explained.

“In ensuring that Ugu bridges a communication gap with its customers, continuous updates were posted on the customer care relations facebook page. The municipality reached over 2 000 consumers via facebook regarding the Shelly Beach water outage. This communication methodology was highly recommended by the community and proved viable as there was continuous interaction with customers,” said Mr Khuzwayo.

“While Ugu continues its efforts to beef up its call centre, customers are urged to like the facebook page ‘Ugu Municipality: Water and Sanitation Services’ for regular updates on issues affecting their areas and for instant interaction with Ugu,” he said.

He urged customers not to despair but continue also to utilise the call centre for water and sanitation related queries on 08000 WATER (92837) or (039) 688 5830/36.