Ugu District Disaster Office has declared the area of Harding a drought -stricken area.

This was revealed after resident and farmer, Bertie Strydom highlighted the situation this week. The disaster office has presented documentation supporting this declaration to the Provincial Disaster Office. This included technical documentation with clear mitigation plans and cost estimates.

In August last year Harding was faced with a similar problem and residents were left uncertain about the future of their water supply.

Ugu District Municipality spokesman, France Zama said, “While Ugu awaits funding in this regard, we have been proactive in many areas. We have installed domestic restrictions in order to reduce water consumption, repaired all internal domestic leaks, maintained all our zone pressure reducing valves (PVRs) and created the agreed water shedding timetable.”

ALSO READ: Water restrictions imposed on drought-stricken Harding

The municipality has a signed Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Umgeni Water into abstracting raw water from a reliable Weza river into Harding Dam. Umgeni Water is currently doing its procurement processes. It is estimated to take three to four months to have this pipeline/scheme completed to pump water into the Harding Dam, he said.

“In the meantime, we are reviewing our water shedding timetable into fewer days through the infrastructure as we have opened the emergency line from Weza into Harding town. This timetable will take into consideration the domestic household, business sector and St Andrews Hospital. Days when there is no water in the pipes, relief is provided through water tankers,” said Mr Zama.

He added that the long term plan is still the Weza Regional Scheme which talks of building a dam, upgrading the Weza Treatment Works and reticulation (bulk supply).

Fifteen years ago, Mr Strydom addressed the water issue at a town meeting with Ugu District Municipality suggesting that Ugu build or extend the size of the Harding dam.He said he was told to sit down and leave water issues to Ugu. Since then very little has been done to expand the size of the dam. “Now we have a crisis and who is to blame?” he asked.

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