DEAR Editor,-
The water woes experienced in the Ugu District have been staggering and unprecedented. The number, frequency and duration of water outages have now reached unacceptable and unreasonable levels.
The provision of water is the single most important service in the world. No other service, be it education, electricity or healthcare, can be provided in the absence of water.
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Ugu District Municipality is the ONLY supplier of consumable water to its citizens. It matters not whether a person has tanks or boreholes, Ugu remains the ONLY source.
Ugu’s obligation to provide an uninterrupted supply of water is huge and Ugu is therefore legally held to a much higher standard.
Unfortunately it has now seemingly reached a stage where something more must be done to hold Ugu to account.
Sporadic feedback from Ugu on social media is not sufficient. The citizens of Ugu need to now take legal action to enforce their constitutional right to water.
Ugu is duty bound to provide an official report (approved by the executive committee) regarding every single instance of water outages over the past five years, including the reasons therefore, funds spent on rectifying and preventing further outages and reasons why further outages persist, despite work done to prevent it.
The report should be subjected to scrutiny by an independent person or party. Ugu District Municipality must be held more accountable to its citizens.
Investigations also need to be undertaken to uncover any acts of sabotage and in such instances, Ugu must be held vicariously liable for the acts of such employees.
Our courts are now holding officials personally responsible for acts of dishonesty. It is high time that the citizens of Ugu start taking firm measures to enforce their basic human rights.
DR PRENISHA SEWPERSADH
Email45
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