Drought is a reality and we must all play our part

The drought situation around uThukela District Municipality is getting worse, and now Emnambithi Municipality is following on the heels of Indaka Municipality in becoming one of the worst affected areas.

What must be clarified to the public is that there is no water-shedding taking place, but uThukela supplies only what it has.  The term water-shedding implies that we have the capacity, but are withholding it. This is not the case, as we are supplying whatever water we have.

As a result, the Water Technical Services are continuously pumping water to fill the lower reservoirs at the water treatment plant. Once a day, for a maximum of four hours, water is pumped to the main reservoir in Observation Hill.

Due to its location, Hospital Park has not felt the impact of water restrictions, as the area still manages to get enough water.

Observation Hill, La Verna, Hyde Park, Mkhamba Gardens, Modelkloof, parts of Limit Hill, Danskraal Industrial, Roosboom, Tsakane, parts of Steadville and St Chad’s are badly affected.

Ezakheni is fairly okay at the moment, but due to water tankers that are filling from there, water levels tend to drop to 51%.

Power outages also make the situation dire, as it takes time to restore water back to normal once there are outages. There are, however, plans to install a backup diesel pump at the Spioenkop Dam to ensure that water is being pumped continuously even when electricity is down.

Another area of concern is the farmers, who are illegally drawing raw water from our line. This must come to an end immediately or legal action will be taken against those individuals.

In Driefontein, most of the production boreholes have run dry. These boreholes are now pumping out mud, which has forced our engineers to switch them off. The Estcourt area is not affected, except for water losses due to water leaks.

uThukela say some Weenen farmers are reported to be drawing raw water from the furrow, and drastic action will be taken against any farmers caught.

The severe drought in Bergville has also caused the river canals to dry out completely. This means that the Zwelisha / Moyeni Water Treatment Works has no water at all now, and therefore Wards 6 to 9 respectively are affected.

The situation remains critical and communities are therefore requested or advised to use water sparingly during this trying period of drought.

People are also encouraged to store water in containers once they have water running. This will assist in terms of having enough water in households in times of unexpected water cuts.

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