Tugela drying up, drought worsens

The drought in Ilembe has escalated to the point where trenches had to be dug in the dry Umvoti River bed in search of water.

Notha Maphumulo, Ilembe district municipality (IDM) deputy director of operations and maintenance, said the water pumps at the extraction point had to be adjusted to the extremely low water level and even after the adjustment, only three of seven pumps could reach the water. The Umvoti River supplies KwaDukuza town and surrounds.

Maphumulo said their TLB’s were reaching rock bottom in the river bed and soon they would run out of space to dig for water. He said they were also approaching the extraction plant’s underground foundation and would have to stop digging soon.

He blames not only the severe drought, but also the impact illegal sand mining on the Umvoti River’s dwindling water level over the years.

“The sand miners dig holes and passages that are lower than the river bed and this causes the water to flow to the new lower point and get absorbed by the newly exposed soft sand in stead of flowing uninterrupted down the natural river bed,” said Maphumulo.

Maphumulo said they were fighting a losing battle with sand miners when the various national departments who issued licences did not consult with the IDM to find out how it would affect their water supply before handing out licences.

People in and around Stanger find themselves without water for up to 18 hours per day due to a strict water shedding schedule.

The deputy director said last week that the Umvoti Waterworks supply had dropped from 18 million litres per day to just 8,5 million litres a day, while the level of Hazelmere Dam has also started dropping again and is now at 27 percent.

“If we do not get rain, we may not see January,” he said.

Maphumulo said they were in the process of reviving five existing boreholes in KwaDukuza and looking onto desalination as a long term solution, but did not know where the water would come from if it did not rain soon.

Areas supplied by the Umvoti Waterworks now rely heavily on water tankers during the day. High lying areas are worst affected.

People who live in blocks of flats in Stanger, especially those on floors higher up, now no longer have water and rely completely on water tankers.

Meanwhile, the greater Ilembe district is expected to run out of water within 120 days. Ilembe mayor, Welcome Mdabe will meet with minister of water and sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane this week to present the district’s business plan for the drought.

“The problem is we do not have enough water tankers and the majority of the little we do have, are hired. To date Ilembe has spent more than R15 million on hiring water tankers at R6 000 per day per tanker. We are looking at a budget of no less than R300 million to buy our own,” said Mdabe.

He said IDM was currently transporting water from Mandeni, sourced from the Tugela River, to KwaDukuza and Maphumulo.

“However there are indications that the Tugela River is also steadily running dry,” said Mdabe.

The mayor appealed to all Ilembe residents to continue to save water.

“This is a national disaster and is beyond anyone’s control. We urge people to be patient and to be considerate and to enable water tankers to supply as many households as possible by

bringing reasonable containers to be filled up,” said Mdabe.

The South African Weather Service reported that El Niño is expected to be with us until at least April 2016.

The Lower Tugela Bulk Water Supply System should bring relief but will only come online earliest June 2016.