OPINION: Stalled Eskom project leave residents without water
This failure must be fixed now.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ray Nkonyeni Municipality condemns the ongoing water crisis affecting the Umtamvuna area, which has now persisted for almost a decade.
Despite there being sufficient raw water available, the failure of Ugu District Municipality and Eskom to provide adequate and stable electricity to power pumps and treatment infrastructure has left approximately 190 000 residents without reliable access to water. Communities are forced onto a daily seesaw between barely adequate supply and no water at all. Rural residents are reduced to collecting water from polluted rivers, while households and businesses in coastal towns are pushed to spend scarce resources on privately supplied water, rainwater harvesting and costly boreholes. In 2019, residents were promised a permanent solution through a new electricity connection from the Eastern Cape.
Ugu District forked out R14m of ratepayers’ money towards the project, but it was partially constructed and never completed. As a result, the Umtamvuna Water Treatment Plant continues to operate with insufficient pumping capacity.
The crisis reached breaking point over December 2025 when unstable electricity caused the plant to drop from three pumps to one.
Port Edward and Banners Rest, as well as Leisure Bay and surrounding areas, have been without water for weeks. Eskom has been aware of this problem since 2017 and has failed to act. Funding constraints are no excuse for denying communities their constitutional right to water.
DA councillors, MPs and MPLs will continue to exhaust every avenue to resolve this crisis. The community now stands united: enough is enough. This failure must be fixed now.
STEPHANIE BREEDT
DA Ray Nkonyeni councillor
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