THE City of uMhlathuze says it has dispatched three tankers to assist residents who have been without water for the past two days.

The interruption in water supply was caused by a burst pipe on Sunday and while the pipe had been repaired, many residents woke up to dry taps in their homes on Monday.

By Tuesday morning, water supply had still not been restored to Eagles Drive, Partridge Road, Sable Road, Louis Botha Avenue, Moberly Road and Higgs Road, among others.

‘The team managed to find the problem around 3am this morning (Tuesday). ‘It was discovered that the problem is a blocked reservoir that supplies the affected areas.

‘They started to work on it and there is no estimated time yet for repairs. But they are hard at work to ensure it is unblocked today (Tuesday),’ said City spokesperson, Mdu Ncalane.

Residents expressed frustration over the delays in the return of water supply.

One resident on Partridge Road, Empangeni said she had been without water since 5pm on Sunday.

‘When they put out the notice to say there will be water interruptions due to a major pipe burst, we thought we would at least have water by the evening.

‘When it still did not return, we put our hopes on waking up to running taps,’ she said. ‘I was still not able to take a shower and go to work because there was no water.’

Another resident, who lives on Eagles Drive, expressed frustration over the lack of communication from the municipality.

‘We appreciated that they informed us of the burst pipe but after that initial announcement, there were no further updates apart from what we were receiving from our neighbourhood watch groups.

‘We had water up until midday on Sunday but then the taps went dry. ‘Then we were told the problem had been fixed and they were working on filling up the reservoirs,’ she said.

She said her house was still without water on Tuesday.

‘The most frustrating part is not knowing what is happening and how to plan around not having water,’ the resident said.