Warning: No water for six hours

A WATER shutdown is planned for Tuesday and Wednesday next week (January 27 and 28) for the high-lying areas of Umtentweni, Sunwich Port, Sea Park, Southport and Umzumbe.

The shutdown is to repair the main water supply to these areas. The outage is expected to last from  9.30am to 3.30pm.

Ugu spokesman, Sipho Khuzwayo, said customers should store enough water for the day, adding that the municipality would dispatch water tankers in the case of an emergency.

“Management of Ugu took a decision to wait until the peak season had passed to ensure minimal disruption,” he said.

Mr Khuzwayo explained that if it had shut the pipeline down under such high consumption rates it would have taken a few days to rebuild the northern capacity, leaving many customers frustrated.

Recently Herald readers took to its facebook page to express their disgust at the colour of the water in areas such as Hibberdene, Mtwalume, Southport, Uvongo and Margate.

Elsa-Marie Malan posted a photograph of a glass of murky water on the Herald’s website.

“This is the water that we pay for and drink in Southport. It’s been like this for months and no one has done anything to sort it out,” she wrote.

“It’s disgusting and that’s why so many people are sick,” said another facebook user.

Another reader said that Margate’s water has been of the same poor quality for over a month. “Ugu has done nothing. This is a health concern,” she added.

In December, Henry Tiedemann, who lives in Gauteng but owns a holiday home on the South Coast, was horrified at the ‘muddy brown’ water that poured out the hosepipe while filling up his grandchildren’s inflatable swimming pool.

For most of the holidays the family had to endure ‘poor water with a rotting or decaying kind of smell’.

Three weeks later and after many phone calls to Ugu District Municipality, a plumber was eventually sent to Mr Tiedemann’s home, and samples of the water were taken.

Mr Tiedemann has since returned home but has heard nothing further from Ugu regarding the quality of the water.

The Herald inquired from Ugu if the water had in fact been tested.

Mr Khuzwayo confirmed that the water met the South African national standard.

“Ugu’s water is within the South African national standards 241 which qualifies it as extremely safe to drink,” he said.

He said that the municipality has planned  a scouring programme in all  areas to flush out the systems and ensure there is no yellow/brown coloured water.

“The municipality apologises to those customers who had discoloured water,” he added.

This week, a Louisiana resident complained that he had driven past a leak near Batstone’s Drift, Port Shepstone which has been seeping water for the past three months.

He said that, despite numerous phone calls to Ugu, nothing had been done to repair the leak.

On Monday this week a passing motorist, in desperation, used a piece of sugar cane to try prevent the water leaking out. He said it was most concerning that Ugu doesn’t bother to fix water leaks while many households don’t have running water.

Mr Khuzwayo said that the municipality acknowledges the leaking pipe in the close proximity to Batstone’s Drift. He said that the leak is on the main supply pipeline to areas from Umtentweni to Hibberdene.

“This could not be fixed during the highly demanding festive season as fixing required complete shutdown of the supply which would have affected a larger number of customers in the northern area,” he said.

Mr Khuzwayo said that for water and sanitation related updates and queries, communities are to communicate with their ward councillors or call 08000 WATER (92837) or (039) 688 5830/36 or SMS 44751.