Residents from Emona, north of Tongaat have had irregular water supply since late last month forcing them to buy drinking water and rely on a trickle that comes out of the taps every few hours.
Bongekile Mkhwanazi, who lives a few metres from the communal stand pipe, said she sometimes waits six hours for a 20 litre container to fill up.
“The situation is beyond bad. About three community taps are affected by the disruptions but on the other side of the hill the water is running as normal,” said Mkhwanazi.
She said she had to travel to the taps at the bottom of the hill to fetch water when she wanted to do laundry even though there was a tap right next to her house.
Her neighbour Reshma Bansee, who does not rely on community taps like Mkhwanazi, said she reported the matter to ward committee secretary Zamani Ntuli and councillor Michael Abraham after the first disruption from January 29.
“Only a trickle comes out the taps and that makes it very difficult to do any household work. The toilets are not flushing and the geysers are not working. I am forced to buy 10 litres of water everyday for cooking and drinking,” said Bansee.
She said her biggest concern was her neighbours like Mkhwanazi who were forced to go for hours without water because they could not even afford to buy it.
“I have been phoning the municipality’s offices everyday trying to get them to come and help us but all they tell me is that illegal electricity connections at a nearby pump-station are causing the system to trip,” said Bansee.
Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said if one neighbour had their tap open the the rest of the homes at the top of the hill cannot get even a trickle.
“It is unfortunate that we are restricted from getting a service that we are paying for. The issue of illegal connections has been reported to councillor Abraham and Eskom many times before it started affecting our water but nothing has been done,” she said.
A power cable to her house also has close to 50 wires going to different houses. She said she was tired of talking about it because she got no response from the community leaders.
“I know they are technically stealing my power but what can I do? I just pay my electricity bill and shut up. Maybe if the government gave them electricity they would stop stealing ours,” she said.
Councillor Abraham said he reported the matter to the metro but when the workers visited the site they only removed illegal connections from the transformer, which has been continuously failing to supply power to the pressure pump.
“I have gone back to Ethekwini and told them they needed to fix the transformer because thier actions have failed the community. People like Bansee are ratepayers and they deserve to get the service they are paying for,” said Abraham.
He said he would go back to the metro and to get them to fix the problem because he considered a water shortage an emergency.
