The Amajuba District Municipality has responded to an article published last week regarding the water shortage in Utrecht as a result of which children were sent home from school.
Thanda Zulu, Director of Technical and Engineering Services, said in a statement issued to the media, that ‘it is regrettable that the water shortage at specific areas of Emadlangeni Municipality might have resulted in some children being sent back home.’
According to Mr Zulu, the municipality cares about the education of children, and that the municipality would like to apologise to the parents, pupils and all other parties affected.
The statement cited the cause of the water shortage to have been due to a power outage at Eskom, as they were conducting maintenance from 8am on Sunday to 3pm. It is believed when Eskom then switched the power back on, a cable fault further cut power from Sunday afternoon to 1.30am on Tuesday morning.
The ring feed line, which serves as a backup in case of such situations, was also faulty.
“We did receive a request from Utrecht Primary School, but we could not get everywhere. We only had two tankers and time was against us,” said Mr Zulu in the statement. “By the time we arrived at the school in question it was already closed.”
He furthermore apologised for the inconvenience caused, and urged residents who wished to contact the municipality regarding complaints pertaining to water and sanitation issues after hours to use the following contact details:
E-mail: info@majuba.gov.za or telephone 034 329 7330 / 034 329 7329. During working hours, the following contact numbers can be utilised: 034 329 700 / 034 329 7381 / 034 329 7234.
“We also wish to emphasise that we took the initiative to provide water tankers after receiving information from Emadlangeni Local Municipality about the challenge with electricity. We understand that we might not have reached each household in the affected areas, but we targeted central areas where most people could easily access our service,” he concluded.
