Water woes spread
Residents without water feel their district municipalities are doing nothing to update them on the situation
WHILE water woes continue to plague Mtubatuba and surrounding areas, the crisis has spread to KwaMbonambi, where residents are also without municipal water.
‘Until recently, uThungulu District Municipality would inform us when water would be switched off or restricted.
‘In recent weeks, however, our water was limited to a trickle twice a day, which was too low a pressure to go through the geyser, but since Friday, we have had nothing,’ said a KwaMbonambi resident who asked to remain anonymous.
‘We received no advance warning and nobody at either uMfolozi Local Municipality or uThungulu is available to explain’.
Telephone calls to both municipalities go unanswered, messages are unreturned, and the residents are left wondering when they will again receive municipal water.
Unofficially, the complainant heard there was insufficient water to supply residents, that the pipeline feeding the reservoir could not supply water for longer than five hours at a time, and that the municipality was attempting to fill KwaMbonambi reservoir with water tankers.
Response had not been received from the uThungulu District at the time of going to press.
Water pumped
In Mtubatuba, the excavator which was reportedly requested from uMkhanyakude District Municipality three weeks ago arrived to excavate the Mfolozi riverbed on Friday.
A trench was dug from the pump station at the railway bridge to the N2.
While this means water is available to be pumped, a municipal source said, as only one pump is working, it would be impossible to pump water to all areas simultaneously.
This, after Mtubatuba residents have been without water for weeks, bar a few hours here and there, and St Lucia had, on Friday, not received municipal water since 9 April.
On one occasion when Mtubatuba residents received water, what came out of their taps had a closer resemblance to mud.
KwaMsane residents are also battling the water crisis, as are Nordale, Khula Village, Monzi, Dukuduku and all other areas serviced by Mtuba Waterworks.
Wells are being drilled into the Mfolozi riverbed but this process was delayed during the March/April rains.
While uMkhanyakude District spokesperson Mdu Dlamini has not issued a full update on the situation, he did say that good progress was being made on the wells.
Amid much speculation that uMkhanyakude owes millions to contractors and suppliers, this, according to speculators, being the prime reason water shortages have not been rectified, Dlamini stated that the district has honoured all its debts.
