Sembcorp Siza Water are making good on their promise to issue fines to those who abuse the water restrictions on the Dolphin Coast.
KwaDukuza firemen were spotted washing their fire truck and driveway in Ballito Drive last Friday morning.
The Courier has been alerted to this abuse on numerous occasions but this was the first time they were caught red handed on camera.
Siza Water affected stage three water restrictions on Wednesday November 12, in an effort to reduce commercial and residential water consumption by at least 30 percent.
The use of hosepipes is totally banned under current water restrictions as is the washing of buildings and structures.
Vehicles can only be washed using buckets of water.
Sembcorp Siza Water confirmed that the fire department is not exempt from water restrictions.
The fire department is only permitted to fill their fire trucks with grey water and use that for vehicle and driveway washing.
Sembcorp Siza Water investigated the source of the water in the truck and found it to be potable water.
KDM fire and rescue was subsequently issued a R3 000 fine for transgressing stage three water restrictions.
The news sparked intense debate on the Courier Facebook page between those for and against issuing a fine to the fire department.
Some said the firemen had a right to clean vehicles because they save our lives and others stressed that saving water takes preference over clean cars and premises and that the municipality should be setting the example.
Sembcorp Siza Water apparently issued a number of fines in the area and will continue doing so.
Hazelmere dam supplies water to the Ilembe district municipality (including Ndwedwe and Groutville), eThekwini metropolitan municipality (including Verulam, Waterloo, Westbrook and La Mercy) and Sembcorp Siza Water (including Ballito and Umhlali).
Umgeni Water corporate stakeholder Shami Harichander said on Tuesday that Ilembe and eThekwini are currently still under stage two restrictions but the implementation of stage three restrictions are imminent.
The dam was last measured at 44 percent full but about 15 percent of this is silt. The Courier asked Harichunder why the silt had not been removed yet as part of regular maintenance.
He said: “A decision was taken by the department of water and sanitation (DWS) after feasibility studies were done, to raise the dam wall to compensate for less storage due to siltation.
“DWS owns Hazelmere Dam and it can be contacted to comment on the decision to raise the dam wall over desilting.”
Harichander added that although the idea of desilting a dam is good in theory, it is difficult to implement.
He explained that a truck can hold about five cubic meters and to desilt about 10 000 000 cubic metres would require 2 000 000 truck loads to and from the dam.
This would cost more than R1 billion and finding a place to dump that amount of silt is a problem.
He said the rate of silt deposition is over 300 000 cubic metres a year which means one truck load would have to leave the dam site every two and a half minutes, 24 hours a day just to keep up current deposition, let alone clearing existing silt.
Harichander stressed the importance of considering the environmental impact of this operation if it were possible.
