Water supply issues continue to affect north Durban residents
Residents in the area have had to incur additional costs by purchasing and installing JoJo tanks and, in some cases, drilling their own boreholes.
FOR the last year, residents across north Durban have had to deal with no water supply or an intermittent water supply for days on end.
This has led to growing frustrations and forced many residents to incur additional costs by purchasing and installing JoJo tanks and, in some cases, drilling their own boreholes.
The eThekwini Municipality buys most of its treated water from the uMgeni-uThukela Water Board.
The board stores the treated water in bulk storage reservoirs before supplying eThekwini Municipality reservoirs.
The Northern Aqueduct is of significant importance as it’s a pipeline that carries water from the Durban Heights Treatment Works to the areas in the north.
Related article: eThekwini Municipality says aqueduct project will improve water supply to north Durban
While a project to commission the new Northern Aqueduct Augmentation pipeline is underway, residents like Darryl Oliver continue to experience increasingly frequent and lengthy interruptions to their water supply.
According to the City, the augmentation pipeline interconnects to the existing old Northern Aqueduct and aims to improve the flow of water supply to areas in the north.
Oliver, who lives in Durban North, said he has had to recently install two 2 000 litre JoJo tanks on his property which are then used to supply water to three homes.
“Without fail, every two to three days, there are messages on the groups mentioning no water supply or low water pressure. My wife and I have two young children and tenants on our property, and water is essential to functioning on a daily basis. It is highly frustrating, and as a result, we’ve had to source alternative water solutions. We’ve installed two tanks and had to install a pump system which was plumbed in at our own cost.
“This was meant to be a stop-gap because we were being affected on a weekly basis before this. I do feel more and more people are turning to JoJo tanks or looking at alternatives because not everybody is able to cart water around. The situation is dire, and I know there are areas far worse off than us who have been without water for 100 days,” he said.
Also read: Newlands Drive’s stormwater infrastructure to be upgraded
Oliver said he also hoped the City improved its turnaround time to respond to water leaks.
“Our message is to use water sparingly, but the municipality needs to work on improving its response to leaks. One example was a water leak on Umhlanga Rocks Drive which was running for close to three weeks. I do agree with the City that we need to conserve as much as we can, but there also needs to be more efforts made by the City,” he said.
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