DEAR Editor,-
Many Uvongo and Manaba residents have been without running water for 15 days (and counting). I do not know who or how many there are, but I am part of a group of 27 houses affected at Beverley Woods in Alamein Road. We keep each other informed via visits, Whatsapp and email.
In the short term, there is little we can do but manage as best we can with what we have. Not all, but some homes have an intermittent supply and water tanks have been placed in some streets for those who don’t. Ugu advises that to replace the old degraded pipe that continually bursts will take three to four weeks. We’ll see. I’m not holding my breath.
If you are fortunate enough to not be among those affected, you must be so glad that it is not your problem… Well, not yet anyway. But soon it will be, because there are many old and degraded pipes on the Hibiscus Coast and the next one could well be yours.
It appears that this is a problem of an ageing infrastructure which has been poorly maintained and Ugu has not shown the will and/or capacity to plan and execute a strategy to upgrade the system proactively as opposed to reactively.
So what can be done to prevent water cuts like this becoming a regular part of life on the Hibiscus Coast? We need to work together as a community to ensure that Ugu does its job by providing us with services (not limited to water) that we pay for.
Crucial to this is the financial provision made for water and other essential services. A roadshow or public discussion for the proposed 2015/2016 HCM budget will be held in the Uvongo Town Hall on Friday, April 24 at 5pm. It is in the interest of every single resident of the area to attend and insist on accountability from the municipality, for now and for the future.
There are already many concerned people working for us out there, but we need to support them. Various ratepayers’ associations have worked tirelessly (and mostly thanklessly) over many years to protect residents’ interests. How many of us support these groups by attending meetings – even once a year at the AGM? I know that I, for one, don’t.
Our group here has been given a great deal of help and information by DA councillor, Peter Naude, and we thank him for that. For information, the DA has recently done an investigation into the worrying state of the Ugu waste water treatment plants and residents can speak to their councillor about this or go to www.ugudakzn.org to read about it and sign the petition.
DEBBIE COOK
Uvongo
