DEAR Editor,-
I reside in Baker Road in Margate, off Wingate Avenue alongside the Margate Country Club.
I am writing this letter as a last resort, out of severe frustration, in the hopes that some media attention may be brought to an ongoing issue residents have faced periodically throughout the years, but now it is more frequently.
ALSO READ : Is DEW bottled water safe to drink?
Water is a basic human right and necessary for everyday living, yet we go through ‘outages’ for days or even weeks at a time multiple times a year and it just seems to be getting worse.
We report, complain, ask for relief and most of the time this seems to fall on deaf ears.
Phoning Ugu to get a straight answer is near impossible. We are ‘assured’ of the issues being attended to, but the area is currently on day six with NO WATER – AGAIN!
Static tanks are sometimes placed as a means of relief, but these are far and few between and generally speaking, one tank services and supplies entire areas.
How is it that this issue keeps repeating itself? Why do we have to put up with shocking service delivery?
Over the past year I can recall multiple water outages. As recently as a few weeks ago (February 14) water went out for the entire weekend (almost four days) from January 30.
Over the past 18 months, we have had numerous outages – one lasted 18 days and some areas were affected even longer than that!
Can you imagine not drinking, cleaning, cooking or bathing water for 18 days?
The average time for water outages in our area can be anything from a week to 10 days and consider ourselves ‘lucky’ if it only lasts two or three days.
These outages usually arrive during ‘season’ or long weekends, which greatly impact tourism and hopes of holidaymakers returning.
Visitors leave feeling disgruntled and annoyed and some even ask for refunds for accommodation, swearing never to return to the South Coast.
Each time this happens, it affects businesses across the board and costs each household hundreds of rands in bottled water and other expenses to survive.
ALSO READ : WATER UPDATE: Repairs to pipeline successfully completed
What about those households who cannot afford bottled water? Or the elderly, who cannot walk or drive to static tanks? What about animals, livestock and wildlife that is affected?
Enough Ugu! We are tired of the same problems and excuses and demand answers. We want solutions.
NATASHA CAPLE
Margate
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
