THE eThekwini Municipality has clarified its comments surrounding the installation of water restrictors on consumer meters.
Senior officials from the eThekiwni Water and Sanitation (EWS) unit said there would be no blanket approach to restrictors and, instead, the City would prioritise areas where there is a high level of water wastage.
This was in response to the decision taken by the eThekwini Municipality to implement a water curtailment programme which began on October 10.
It is expected to be implemented over the next 12 months with the aim of achieving an 8.4% reduction in the municipality’s water consumption rate as the water demand exceeds available supply.
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Senior members of the EWS management met with residents from different ratepayers bodies at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre on Friday last week.
“With the curtailment in place, the City is required to implement initiatives to manage and reduce the high levels of water demand to ensure that available water supply is shared equitably. To clarify the issue of the installation of water restrictors on consumer meters, the City’s Water and Sanitation Unit’s management announced that restrictors to control the flow of water and to reduce the pressure have not been installed in any household as part of the curtailment. It was stated that water demand initiatives would not be implemented in a blanket approach. However, the priority is to target areas where there’s excessive demand,” the City said in a statement.
The municipality added that operational teams are analysing night flows to determine reservoir zones with excessive demand.
“This is being done to first determine leaks and illegal connections on the system for these to be attended to timeously. The unit’s management stated that effort is being made to ensure that the minimum pressure will be supplied during peak demand periods. The reduction in pressure will take place during off-peak periods. This exercise will not be in a blanket approach once it is implemented.”
Also read: Local ratepayers’ bodies express anger over water curtailment programme
The City were also quick to point out that the goal of the curtailment programme is not to shift the responsibility onto the public, however, the City is also addressing water losses and leakages.
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