Tongaat, La Mercy without water

Tongaat and La Mercy residents are frustrated with erratic and extended water interruptions.

Some La Mercy residents reported on Facebook that they were without water all day on Wednesday and some until Thursday.

In the meantime, residents in Tongaat said they have been without water since last week.

Ethekwini Water area engineer, Ashan Nandlal said the problem in La Mercy was caused by a burst pipe on Park Avenue, but that they were working on getting it fixed.

He said the shortages in Tongaat were as a result of the increased volume of water being pumped across from the Tongaat River to Hazelmere Dam.

“We have restricted the supply to Tongaat by 30 percent to pump the saving across to the dam,” he said.

Nandlal said a water shedding schedule for Ethekwini Water customers will be available from tomorrow.

He said they were in the process of installing restrictor valves throughout their area of supply which will eliminate the need for water shedding and restore uninterrupted water supply by restricting flow to such an extent that the allotted daily supply lasts all day.

Nandlal urged customers to bear with them and called for unity from the public in saving water and being patient.

“Call volumes are very high, jamming our call centre and making it impossible for us to tend to emergency calls (like burst pipes) quickly,” he said.

Nandlal assured customers that the water will come back on if it went off, even if a little later than scheduled.

See next week’s Courier for more on this and other water-related news.