Johannesburg – The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini has called on the municipality’s water department to put more effort into improving their turnaround time in responding to leaks and burst pipes.“This is simply an ongoing operational failure that the ANC government refuses to remedy,” DA spokesperson on water in eThekwini, Martin Meyer, said in a statement.Meyer said that the City of eThekwini’s dismal response times to burst pipes and leaks had cost the municipality 132.51 million kilolitres of wasted water in the 2015/2016 financial year, resulting in a R710.90 million revenue loss.“Many residents have already experienced their taps running dry as the City is losing more and more water and cannot meet demand. Most recently, residents across the Pinetown area were left high and dry towards the end of January after 16 reservoirs dried up, while millions of litres of drinking water are being let down the drain by the eThekwini municipality.”He said the issue was only the beginning of the city’s water troubles, as dam levels supplying eThekwini continued to drop, with Albert Falls sitting at around just 25 percent capacity.“The people of eThekwini certainly deserve better services than this disappointing performance from the water department. Where the DA governs we have turned around response times to be the fastest in the country, and we cut down water losses to the lowest in South Africa.”Meyer said the DA would continue to press eThekwini to improve the water loss situation, which was only making the drought crisis worse.The municipality could not be reached for comment despite numerous attempts.African News Agency
