WARD 97 councillor, André Beetge, has provided an update on the water situation in Amanzimtoti.

On Thursday, April 14, André Beetge and his team did a personal visit to the Umlazi area to observe first-hand the destruction of the 800mm water supply line that supplies 80 000 000 litres of water necessary to satisfy the demands of the southern wards from Isipingo down to Umkomaas and inland surrounds.

They found 150m of the line, including the huge concrete structure that supported it across the Umlazi channel, missing and washed away.

“Following a call to the HOD of the water department, we were quite surprised at his indication of not being aware, seeing that we were already aware of it on Wednesday morning and the fact that an engineering team was on site the same Wednesday.

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Further investigation led us to many steel pipes readily available. Likewise, adequate space and load bearing capacity across the adjacently South Coast road bridge to rebuild and relay the supply and this within a mere two or three days. By the end of Friday, there were designs complete, materials available and welding teams available. At the end of a telephone call, not one single pipe had been moved, not one welder activated and not one drop of water being made available.

There was also nobody in a position of activation authority, that includes the acting city manager, deputy city manager of HOD, reachable to explain just what exactly is keeping them from implementation and relieving thousands of people from their thirst,” said Ward 97 councillor, André Beetge. 

Beetge went on to say that they estimate the city to have around 70 water tankers available to serve 3.5 million people.

“As we receive information regarding the water, we will let everybody know but reality is, at this stage, the city does not have the capacity to supply, the plant is not functional, and we are waiting for more tankers to be delivered in eThekwini now that a state of disaster has been declared,” said Beetge. 

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On Friday, April 15, they visited the Amanzimtoti/ Umgeni water treatment works where the water inflow is currently 10 times murkier than normal but is safe to drink as it has still gone through the PH plant, chlorination plant, sludge separation and filtration plant. The plant normally produces 20 000 000 kilolitres per day but with the current murky inflow, this has now reduced to 16 000 000 kilolitres per day.

“Further to which, they are only able to supply gravity feed, as with the supply shortage, pumps cannot be switched on and some areas have no supply, as opposed to others that have a reduced supply. Distribution is done in line with availability and usage still far out weights capacity so please people, reduce, reuse and don’t waste even a drop of water, as there is just no more to give until such time as the supply from the Umlazi line is reinstated,” said Beetge. 

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