Thirty days without water in Melville
No water leaves residents worried and desperate.
The South Coast’s lack of water infrastructure maintenance over the years has lead to burst pipes, reservoir water shortages, load-shedding, flooding and more.
Before the flooding Melville, Pumula, Umzumbe and Hibberdene had no water for a number of days.
Annie (76) and James Botes (84) of Melville have been without water for 30 days. It has been a journey of hardship, pain and suffering not only for the Botes’ but many residents north of Port Shepstone.
According to Mrs Botes she has not seen one water tanker in her area since. As old and ill Mrs Botes is, she collects water some 5km away at a friend’s house. She collects five containers of 25 litres of water which the couple uses for a few days.
“Both my husband and I are ill. My husband has fallen on many occasions and lately has injured himself. How do I clean these wounds with no clean water. He could get a terrible infection. How do people keep themselves clean. What is going on at Ugu?” asked Mrs Botes.
She added that before the floods residents of Hibberdene were left for a number of days without water.
A Hibberdene resident said his two jojo tanks which were filled with rain water are empty. “These are two 2 500 litres tanks each. Not a day did I see Ugu giving residents water in our area. Shame on you Ugu. In this day and age an organisation such as yours should have back-up plans in advance,” said the resident.
Another resident, Felicity Govender said they are fed up. “We have one jojo tank at the Hibberdene library that supplies about 300 families. Many businesses in Hibberdene are really battling and Ugu doesn’t seem to care,” said Ms Govender.
Gillian Crosbie from Hibberdene said, “We had the floods but now we pray for rain. It’s been seven weeks without water. Please pray for us.”
At a recent media briefing, Ugu mayor Phumlile Mthiyane said the municipality was trying its best to restore water and have made means for people to get water from tankers.
She also mentioned that the reservoir that provides this area was affected by the floods, the reason for no water. Well, two weeks has since past and thousands north of Port Shepstone are still without water.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
