THE leadership of eThekwini Municipality has roped in the aid of the national department in order to mitigate the glaring challenges of water supply in the city.
According to eThekwini mayor Councillor Cyril Xaba, up until the 15th of August, water supply in the city was relatively stable but prone to intermittent supply, with some areas being rationed.
“The fact that most of our regions do not have 100% water supply can be attributed to, among other things, aging infrastructure, water demand exceeding supply due to population growth, theft and vandalism,” he said.
Also read: Neighbours share ire over water woes
Thus far, to mitigate water woes, the City reported that it had made progress by installing water pumps, conducting the repairs and upgrades of pipelines, and constructing pump stations in different parts of the city.
Regarding the presence of algae in raw water at the point of abstraction at the Nagle Dam, the mayor explained, “While we were still celebrating the remarkable progress, and we were planning to finalise these projects two weeks ago, we were rudely awakened by the increase of algae in raw water from the Nagle-Albert Falls water system which led to the clogging of filters at the Durban Heights Water Treatment Plant.’
“Since the upsurge was reported, eThekwini Municipality and uMngeni-uThukela Water (UUW) have been working tirelessly to respond to the ongoing water challenges. Our goal is to fully restore water supply throughout the city, particularly in the northern areas. The presence of algae has resulted in the reduction of water volumes per day.”
The national Department of Water and Sanitation, as well as UUW, has since intervened.
Also read: Algae bloom in Point Waterfront Canal
“Concerted efforts to treat water with added dosages of chemicals continue at the Durban Heights Water Treatment Plant. The result has been that the Durban Heights Water Treatment Plant has now vastly improved. As a short-term measure, we have deployed water tankers in the affected areas, and they will continue to supply water to affected customers until the system fully recovers,” Xaba added.
On the challenges of billing and meter readings, which have plagued some residents for sometime, Mayor Xaba assured the ratepayers that the City was in the process of changing its billing system to be more ‘user-friendly’.
Also read: Widespread water outages cause frustration in Berea
“To ensure that the change is not only in the face of the bill that customers receive every month, we have also resolved to create a one-stop shop for the billing cycle. This means that our Revenue Management Unit will take over the reading of water and electricity meters with immediate effect, run the monthly billing of customers for consuming municipal services and be responsible for the collection of debt arising from the billing. This will eliminate the challenge of sending customers from pillar to post when resolving their account queries,” he concluded.
For more from Berea Mail, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also check out our videos on our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok.
