Municipality addresses the water challenges in the district

Residents in Dannhauser, Osizweni and the surrounding areas have resorted to protest action after three weeks of having their taps run dry.

Speaking recently about the water crisis, Mayor Zulu said the cause of the issue is the “tie-in” connection failure at the Ntendeka pump station. The failure is linked to leaks related to infrastructure vandalism, illegal connections, and the implementation of stage 6 load shedding, which causes intermittent power outages that affect the pump stations at the Braakfontein reservoir. He went on to say that uThukela Water Services’ transformer failures ‘made matters worse.’

In a recent interview, Deputy Mayor Cllr, Thembelihle Mthembu, and Thembinkosi Shandu, the director of the engineering department, clarified that the municipality was continuously receiving reports and was pursuing several solutions in a bid to address the problem

“After the water outages began to impact a few locations in Madadeni and Osizweni, we learned that Uthukela Water’s generator malfunctioned, preventing them from producing water at the reservoir. Additionally, we found pipe breaks at the Ntendeka pump station, Mthembu said.

Mthembu went on to attribute the water scarcity to vandalism, claiming that sometimes residents damage pipes in an attempt to connect water illegally, leading to ‘significant disruptions’.

“The Amajuba District Municipality and uThukela Water have assured the residents that they have devised a master plan to urgently address the public’s concerns about water scarcity which should result in the situation returning to normalcy soon,” said Zulu

Furthermore, the municipality has launched an aggressive Leak Detection and Repair Intervention, where engineering technical teams have been dispatched to attend to all pipe leaks around the district to prevent further water loss and shortages.

The mayor called on residents to help the municipality ensure that ‘things return to normal’ and expressed regret that residents had to go without water for such a long time.

“We call on residents to act as watchdogs by assisting to report infrastructure leaks and vandalism to ensure that people continue to receive basic services without any deliberate hindrances,” he stated.

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