KwaDukuza residents are demanding answers from the region’s water authority, iLembe District Municipality (IDM), on the ongoing water outages that plague the area.
Democratic Alliance caucus leader MS Sing called for an immediate investigation of water issues, but iLembe district municipality mayor Siduduzo Gumede dismissed this as an electioneering stunt.
Recently hundreds of residents were left without water for more than a week following a shutdown of the Lower Thukela Bulk Supply by Umgeni Water for emergency repairs on the main pipeline.
The pipeline supplies water to a number of reservoirs in the district, which left numerous neighbourhoods without water, including Stanger Manor, KwaDukuza CBD, Warrenton, Indian Village, Ocean View, Doctorskop, Windy Heights, Stanger Heights, Lindelani and New Guelderland.
The status quo is no longer tenable said Sing, who said it was unreasonable to expect the people of KwaDukuza to quietly accept the horrible failure of infrastructure.
“For almost a week there was irregular water supply. The IDM technical department is not helpful in identifying the root cause of the problem or fixing it. Lack of commitment to resolve the issues will see the collapse of our infrastructure,” said Sing.
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He blamed poor planning by the technical department since Stanger Manor was connected to the Lower Thukela Bulk Water Supply Scheme.
“I would estimate since 2011 over R100 million was invested in Stanger Manor, yet we have to suffer because of poor planning and implementation of the project.
“It is glaring that the consultants could have picked up the gaps during the design stage. iLembe must allocate funds to correct the situation. This cannot go on and must be fixed now,” said Sing.
He said skills shortages in the technical department need to be addressed.
To make matters worse, Sing said no municipal water tanks were sent out to affected areas.
“We have to carry buckets from far because there are no water tanks sent here,” said one Stanger Manor resident.
“What is the point of paying more for water when it is not provided,” asked resident Prem Maharaj, who has demanded the problem be escalated to higher government levels as water outages have been ongoing for the past 5 years. This is not why we struggled for freedom, only to be saddled with incompetence,” he said.
But Cllr Gumede denied any skills shortages and told the Courier the municipality has filled all critical positions with engineers and artisans that have vast experience in water and sanitation.
However, there were 3 lengthy shutdowns this month, apparently for repairs.
Gumede said a contributing factor to water issues were power failures which affect the pumping system.
“iLembe District Municipality embarked on a process of replacing all the ageing infrastructure in order to minimize real water losses and improve on water availability in various areas of KwaDukuza which began in 2014.”
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Pipes in Stanger Manor, Zinkwazi, Blythedale Beach, High Ridge, and Stanger Heights have been replaced so far and there are projects currently in the Warrenton, Ocean View and Shakaville areas.
He said the installation of standby generators at Balancing and Kearsney pump stations as a backup during electricity outages were underway and R18 million had been set aside in the 2021/22 budget to replace infrastructure in Glenhills, Mbozamo and New Guelderland.
Gumede said they were buying 7 more water tankers to add to their fleet of 40 tankers, including hired tankers.
KZN’s water master plan has identified the lack of maintenance and replacement of ageing facilities as being central to the province’s water crisis.
“The operational reality is that existing infrastructure was ‘stretched’ because of significant under-investment in infrastructure maintenance and delays in renewal of aged infrastructure,” the report said.
