Glencoe water cuts starting to impact heavily on residents

Gatvol and waterless. This is what some Glencoe residents are feeling barely two weeks into 2015.
And it is because they have had to contend with water cuts since the beginning of December which have left the Biggar Street North and Sithembile areas without water for up to 20 hours at a time.
When the Courier visited the home of Dr Zahiera Bodiat on Biggar Street North on Saturday, residents from the affected areas had gathered to express their disgust over what they say is poor communication from Umzinyathi District Municipality.
The water had been off since 4pm the previous day.
“We have water cuts for up to 20 hours some days and it is so frustrating to get up in the morning to find that the taps are bone dry and have to scuttle about to find any available water container to brush teeth with, flush the toilets, prepare breakfast and warm water to bath to get to work on time,” said Dr Bodiat.

“We have had to resort to buying drinking water at a huge expense as well as asking friends and family in other water-serviced parts to fill our containers and to use their showers in sheer desperation.
“This has been so dehumanising and humiliating. In this day and age when tapped running water is the most basic service that we as taxpayers and members of this community expect at least, our woes are ignored during the hottest days of the year.”

Previously, Umzinyathi blamed the cuts on the low level of the nearby reservoir that feeds the higher altitude areas of Glencoe.

The water is pumped from the reservoir to the tower and then gravity-fed down.
However, low rainfall has meant the reservoir is so low that not enough water can be pumped. The lower parts of the town are simply gravity-fed from another reservoir.
But this explanation has not impressed Dr Bodiat and the residents. “When we phone – if we are lucky to get through – no one at Umzinyathi can tell us when the water will be back. Communication is very poor,” said Alixe Fraser.

Dr Bodiat commented that “if the reservoir is running dry, why is it that certain areas of Glencoe and Dundee are never inconvenienced by this and not even aware of the desperation some of us are facing on a daily basis”.
“If water levels are low, Umzinyathi water should then implement strategies to ensure that everyone in town is aware of the problem and restrict indiscriminate water wastage to a maximum kilolitre per day per household, to ensure that everyone in Glencoe gets some water at all. It seems as if the attitude of the Water Body is that as long as some households get water and are not complaining, to hell with the rest, it`s just bad luck. I get so angry when I mention this to people who live in other parts of Dundee and Glencoe and they appear so dumb as to what I`m talking about.”
By Sunday evening there was still no running water in the area.
“The desperation is getting worse. We have not had a single drop of water since Friday 1pm.
“We have resorted to desperate measures trying to catch every precious drop of rainwater possible,” Dr Bodiat told the Courier.
“The water tanker was seen briefly yesterday and very briefly this morning. By the time we went out with our containers it had gone. We are all beyond angry now and feel a deep sense of hopelessness, physically sick, despair and depression about the situation.”
“We demand that each household that has been affected be compensated by waiving our December and January water bills and that Umzinyathi Water donate a 1000 litre Jojo tank to each household which has had to endure this undignified and prolonged stage of deprivation and suffering …this must include Sithembile location.”