Ballito residents suffering under strict water restrictions do not know how easy they have it.
Jane Mbekwa and her family from ward 13 in Ndwedwe, have to share a small stream with the community’s cattle to get drinking water, wash dishes, do laundry and bath.
“Our taps dried up in November and there is no truck that comes here to give us water,” said Mbekwa.
She and her sister have to walk down a steep hill and back up four times a day to fetch water from the Msunduzi River in a 20 litre bucket.
Since the drought, the small river has shrunk to a quarter of its normal size. Mbekwa said they were tired of using dirty river water.
“We put chlorine tablets in the water and leave it overnight to make it safe to drink, but some of our neighbours drink the dirty river water,” said Mbekwa.
She said there were only about 20 households in the area and one water truck would be enough to service them.
The Courier approached the Ilembe District municipality to find out whether they were aware that the ward had run out of drinking water and if they had the capacity to assign a water tanker to the area, but they did not respond.
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