I want to make people aware of the situation that we are currently facing with Ugu District Municipality.
I, as an upper, middle class South African citizen am not alone when I say that we are tired of not having water.
Is it not our fundamental human right?
We pay our bills on time and yet, Ugu has decided to flip a switch on a Wednesday morning (last week) and bam…we have no water.
And then, Thursday night they flip a switch and bam…we have water, again.
Don’t you think that would be classified as ‘water shedding? Who gave them that power?
I know that other areas like San Lameer and Southbroom have had similar situations on similar occasions. So, as I said, I am not alone in this.
Someone at Ugu is playing God with our water.
When we phone Ugu to log a fault, we get ‘it’s due to loadshedding, there is a leak in Rodney Drive’, or ‘our plumbers have just turned the taps on and we cannot give you a timeframe as to when you will receive water again’.
Maybe I’m stupid but to me these are excuses used over and over but can you explain to me why it’s Wednesday morning? Someone at Ugu may not be doing the job.
I also get told they will follow up and, in all the years of dealing with Ugu, I have yet to receive a call back from them.
I was so tired this morning of not having water I told the woman who answered my call that we don’t have a river at the end of the garden we can go fill our buckets with.
We have nice big houses with lots of taps and flushing toilets which we pay hard earned money for, but can’t use.
This country was once beautiful, and tourism and the coast was booming, keeping shop owners and malls and B & Bs afloat, two or three or four times a year.
Now, people don’t come here anymore because who wants to spend their holiday money buying water at the mall, instead of beach balls and bathing costumes?
Just saying.
I’m not going to take this lightly anymore. Why must we? Must we also start toyi-toying in the streets, just so we can have running water again?
Why must we cower in the corner, or shrug our shoulders and say ‘oh well, what can we do?’
I’ve just phoned Ugu again and they could not give me a reason why we have no water, only that the reservoir is empty. We have had no water since Monday morning. It’s getting worse.
JOH-ANNE
Trafalgar
Note: Ugu has not responded to this letter, sent to them last week.
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