The implementation of continuous loadshedding by Eskom is having a devastating impact on residents, businesses and services across the country.
In Umdoni Municipality, Umzinto and surrounds have been particularly hard hit with frequent, extended water outages. Some residents are left without water supply for weeks at a time. Others are lucky to have supply for a few hours per week.
Due to Ugu’s aged infrastructure and lack of capacity, the supply to Umzinto was constrained prior to the loadshedding woes. However, the continuous loadshedding has literally crippled the supply to approximately20 000 people and the situation has become untenable.
Attempts to constructively engage with Ugu officials have come to nought. I wrote to the Ugu area manager and general manager of water and sanitation on January 20 requesting them to meet with residents and the ward councillor (their paying customers), to explain the constraints and collectively work out a plan to mitigate the problem. They did not even have the courtesy to acknowledge or respond to my request. Residents seeking answers generally meet the same fate and their anger and frustration is directed at the ward councillors who cannot provide timeous and accurate information if Ugu does not provide such information to them.
As many of the generic updates from Ugu blamed loadshedding for the water outages, I have last week, on behalf of Ward 12 residents, written directly to Eskom requesting the exemption from loadshedding for certain critical Umgeni Water and Ugu infrastructure to assist the situation. I thank my caucus leader, Councillor Shara Singh, for raising the concerns about Umzinto at a meeting with Eskom officials on my behalf, thereby paving the way for an application to be made and for also obtaining information on the entire water supply network from the Umzinto Purification Works.
I submitted the application with supporting documentation and a letter of support from Councillor Shara Singh. The request for exemption was also supported by Edwin Baptie, KZN MPL. Eskom will engage Ugu and Umgeni Water, and we are hopeful that our request will yield positive results.
SHAMILA SOOKHRAJ
Democratic Alliance councillor
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