Durban North residents ready to burst over water outages

ONGOING water outages, which have continued for two years, on Anthony Road have left residents at their wits end. Resident, Jenelle Bossert said while there are currently at least two water outages per month, the issue has been ongoing for years.

She recalled when there were water outages every night between 2017 and 2019.

“When we were going through the worst of the drought, the water was switched off from about 8pm until 4am every night for two years straight. I think that impacted the pipes. They were switching water off every night for eight hours and then there was pressure when the water came back on in the morning. I think it put a lot of stress on the pipes. I think that’s part of the reason why we are having a lot of outages now. The pipe infrastructure is old and it appears that the current outages are going to continue or get worse as the infrastructure ages without being replaced or maintained,” she said.

Also read: Water pipes burst across Durban North

Shane Coetzee who also lives on Anthony Road added: “I’ve been living here for nine years and it’s an ongoing issue. In the past year the water goes off quite regularly where we are told there’s a broken pipe . We are out of water for the whole day every few weeks.”

Ward 36 councillor, Shontel de Boer, confirmed that the water outages have been ongoing for years.

“There have been ongoing water leaks on Anthony Road and the whole uMgeni Park area, as well as Park Hill and Broadway precinct which are problematic with water. That’s why I have asked the water department to send me a list of roads where pipes have been upgraded, so I can motivate for other roads to be looked at each financial year. Water outages occur due to water pipe bursts that affect Anthony Road, Collard Road and the whole uMgeni Park area. When they switch off the water, they switch off the whole area, so they have outages due to big bursts,” she said.

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Spokesperson for the eThekwini Municipality, Msawakhe Mayisela said: “Our team will investigate the issues in the area. The water outages are sometimes caused by continuous rainfall that may cause soil to be loose thereby causing pipes to move. We also have cases where temperature, corrosion and high-water pressure in the pipes can cause bursts, encroachment by tree roots, and soil erosion can cause pipe to lose positions.”

“Regarding plans to upgrade the water pipes on Anthony Road, the Water and Sanitation Unit as an Engineering department has technical department that investigates the causes of pipes that are bursting frequently but they are doing these to all areas within eThekwini Municipality jurisdiction. When an upgrade has to be made the Department will have to check the availability of a budget,” added Mayisela.

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