Furious South Coasters have had enough of lurching from water crisis to water crisis and have now begun gathering signatures on a mass lawsuit petition against Ugu District Municipality.
The petition calls for ‘criminal and civil action to be taken’ against Ugu District Municipality and asks petitioners to contribute R100 towards funding a civil suit against the municipality.
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Signing the petition also allows the signatory the right to lay criminal charges against Ugu employees/unions for the sabotage of the water supply.
Samantha Botha is the driving force behind the petition, set up at www.change.org.
According to Ms Botha, as at December 28, the petition had already garnered 6 000 signatures.
A community meeting will be held at the Pumula Superette, today, Thursday, starting at 5pm, at which the petition and affidavit process will be discussed.
Organisers ask those attending to take along a pen and their ID book. A commissioner of oaths and a lawyer will also be present.
The petition can be signed online, or by collecting a copy from any one of 30 outlets along the coast, signing it and placing it back in the box at the outlet.
For more information on the petition, email constitutional_rights@webmail.co.za.
The most recent water crisis has been described as a ‘disaster’, with local business people in particular worried that this will adversely affect the upcoming Easter season.
In many areas there no water before Christmas, and now, four days into the new year, some are still without this vital resource.
Areas such as Tweni, Pumula, Umzumbe, Southport, Sea Park and some areas in and around Port Shepstone have been the hardest hit, with some suburbs being without water for some 20 days.
Karen Salhus of Commercial Road said she didn’t have water for 10 days, including over the Christmas period. “To carry water when you are over the age of 60 is an ordeal. It’s total and utter neglect from Ugu,” she said.
Estell Buys of Tweni Close, says the water situation has been a huge inconvenience and a costly affair, with her having to pay for bottled water and using a laundromat.
For interests sake, the cheapest 1.5 litre of bottled water costs R8,99, and a five litre bottle costs R18,99. If you have to take your washing to the laundromat it will cost you about R90 for a six kilogram load.
Pumula has had a rough time, with residents relying on only one water tank, donated by a community member.
Resident Kean Webster told the Herald he lives in one of the most elevated houses and despite this, he and his neighbor had not had domestic water for over five months and in now relying on water from his static tank and koi pond for survival.
Roelie Rautenbach of Anerley pointed out that South Africa’s Water Services Act, Act 108 (1997) states that:
· Everyone has a right of access to basic water supply and basic sanitation.
· Every water services institution must take reasonable measures to realise these rights.
· Every water services authority must, in its water services development plan, provide for measures to realise these rights…
*At a minimum flow rate of not less than 10 litres per minutes
*Within 200 metres of a household; and
*With an effectiveness such that no consumer is without a supply for more than seven full days in any year.
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In the meantime, Ugu staff has been working around the clock to detect the problem (s), by searching for the possible problems by foot, and bringing in a helicopter to search for the problem by air.
According to a recent statement from Ugu, ageing infrastructure is believed to be the cause of shortage of water in these areas since the beginning of the festive season.
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