Bhekulwandle residents face continuous water woes
Residents were left without water for six weeks and no promised water trucks were dispatched.
Despite eThekwini Municipality’s assurance that all was well, Bhekulwandle residents were left without water for six weeks and no promised water trucks were dispatched.
Seed of Hope (SOH) CEO, Kierra Ward, first brought the dire situation to the SUN’s attention on 17 July, to say then they had been without water for four weeks. “We continue reporting the problem, but are issued wit new reference numbers each time because they keep cancelling it, saying that the water is back on. It had not come back on at all in over six weeks! Children were coming to us to ask for water, because there was no water or the water truck. It was really terrible,” she said.
The SUN sent queries to the municipality and it responded on the same day to say “the reason for the intermittent supply was due to random power outages and matters were made worse by someone breaking the locks on the cover of Smithfield Reservoir outlet chamber, which feeds Reeves Road, Bhekulwandle and Lovu Township. This disruption led to more power outages.”
However, the municipality’s response was deemed a blatant lie by Ward, who tried communicating with the municipality herself via email and telephone, to no avail. “It was ridiculous. Many families in the community are really battling and had to walk a distance to their nearest neighbour who had water. It was unhygienic as well as no flushing toilets were in working order for six weeks, unless we added water ourselves. SOH’s programmes had to change times or be cancelled because of the issue.
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“One of the problems was that some areas of the community did have water, while some areas seemed to have water for a few hours a day and then others, like ours, did not have any water at all. We had no water trucks come to the area, even though they had been requested in the interim,” said Ward.
On Friday, 26 July, eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela, responded to more queries from the SUN and said, “There have been numerous burst pipes in the area which the unit is attending to. As a result of the burst pipes, water levels in the reservoirs remain low. Our plumbers are currently working on the repairs to ensure that residents will receive water today (Friday). We urge communities to report burst pipes or the lack of water as soon the community realise there are interruptions, so that these bursts can be attended to without delay and alternative water supply such as water tankers can be arranged.”
On Tuesday, 29 July, SOH confirmed there still was no water on its premises and to top it off, it received a bill from the municipality for water. The water was finally turned back on late Tuesday afternoon, 30 July.
Report water leaks to 080-131-3013, SMS 43554, WhatsApp to 073-148-3477 or email eservices@durban.gov.za.
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