The water situation in eMalahleni is spiraling out of control.
Some suburbs have been without water for more than a week.
The opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is considering approaching the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).
“Many areas in the municipality have been without water for up to five consecutive days and the only official communication from officials responsible for water supply is that: ‘messages sent to the Municipal Manager remain unanswered’.” said Cllr Landi Schneider-Breekzke from the DA. ”
“This type of response is unacceptable – taking into consideration that the provision of clean water is a basic human right guaranteed by Section 27 (1)(b) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Five days without water is a violation of this section.”
During a public meeting on August 7 Mr Mike Lelaka, the director of technical services from Emalahleni Local Municipality, admitted that the municipality is failing to supply water to its residents.
The municipality needs 148 megalitres per day to secure constant water supply to its community.
However, the demand exceeds the supply with 40 megalitres as only 108 megalitres are available on any given day.
Apart from the shortage of water, the municipality’s failure to maintain the infrastructure and low reservoir levels, water leaks also play a huge role.
“There are water leaks that have not been repaired two weeks after having been reported. This is unacceptable and is a dereliction of duty by all those involved. It remains a concern that during a period where there are shortages of water to fulfill the city’s constitutional obligations to its citizens, water leaks are not repaired timeously,” Cllr Schneider-Breekzke said.
She said it is time for the municipal manager, Mr Sizwe Mayisela, and executive mayor, Cllr Linah Malatjie, to take residents into their confidence and explain the real reasons behind the water shortages.
“We therefore request that the mayor and the municipal manager issue a statement detailing the following: The residents need to know if the municipality has adopted some form of water-shedding to certain areas – and how often and how long will these outages last for; that steps are being taken to restore the water supply to all areas and when is it anticipated that the supply will be restored; why regular bulletins are not released daily explaining progress being made to rectify the water supply; and why water tankers are not delivering water to those areas that have experienced water outages for 12 hours or more.”
By the time going to press the municipality has not responded to the media inquiry about the DA’s quest to involve the Human Rights Commission.
