MORNINGSIDE business owner Morgan Naidoo is at his wits end after his business went without water for five days, starting on Friday, September 29. “The lack of water affected our property and two other block of flats on Innes Road where our business is located,” said Naidoo.
The business owner who owns and operates Grange Gardens Hotel said that being without water for five days put a major strain on his business, “It’s our peak time and our hotel is fully booked. We have refunded most of our guests. It seems that a sewer pipe was blocked and this resulted in there being a heavy stench. We tried to help our guests with bottled water for drinking but we could not operate our business without water. And the apparent sewage issue – we are not sure where the issue is – but it is causing a health hazard as well.”
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Naidoo says he attempted to reach out to the Municipality several times, “The staff and I called more than 20 times. I was given a first reference number and followed up on Monday, October 30 when I was told water has been reinstated. I explained that we still did not have water and was given a second reference number.”
The local business owner said he appealed to the Municipality for days to no avail, “I explained to the Municipality that I had suffered a major loss of business and mentioned the inconvenience caused to staff, guests and the implications of high revenue losses. In the past 2 years around 3 times. But water was restored within a few hours.”
Naidoo says that the water was re-instated on Tuesday afternoon on October 3.
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Giving insight into the situation, Ward Councillor Ernest Smith who attempted to assist the business owner with the issue said: “It appears that the Municipality was working on a fire hydrant near the properties that were affected and the water valve that supplies the hotel and the two other flats was switched off and was not switched back on.”
The eThekwini Municipality was not available for comment at the time of going to print.
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