Durban – Putting a damper on the holiday season, parts of the South Coast, and Port Edward, in particular, remained without water on Monday.
The Ugu Municipality, the councillors and the Port Edward Ratepayers’ association held an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss communication strategies in dealing with the problem.
“As far as they (municipality) were aware, there were only two areas still without water, but the water problem is affecting large parts of the South Coast,” said Peter Brereton of the Port Edward Ratepayers’ Association.
“The most distressing part is that the municipality does not see this as a disaster. It is a disaster, there are areas that have been without water for three weeks.
“And because they believe this is not a disaster, some of the tankers that had been brought in from Johannesburg are being taken back.”
He said the explanation for the problems given by the municipality was that there were too many visitors this year and, once the season was over, things would go back to normal.
Brereton said municipal officials had assured them that the water infrastructure was due for an upgrade.
“We have tourists, many of them are packing up to leave,” he said.
More than 20 different streets were flagged by Port Edward residents as being without water on Monday.
Many vented their frustrations on Facebook.
Charmaine Wicks wrote, “We can complain forever but the truth is its getting us nowhere, something has to be done about it, it’s now becoming a health hazard... I can see a lot of people who own holiday homes here and locals who own homes in Port Edward packing up and leaving.”
Lindi Cronje wrote: “Seeing that UGU left us without water for days and we still have to pay them and we had to pay extra for fresh bottled water and some people lost income due to visitors leaving – don’t you think that UGU should supply each household with a JoJo rain tank to provide water relief?”
Nozi Ndamase said: “Water problem is a challenge and affects us all. We pray for understanding and tolerance until it’s resolved. Holding hands together will help us survive this.
“I thank God for enabling me to purchase a 5000-litre JoJo and my small electric pump in 2013, it has always been my pillar and has given me a huge relief.”
Brereton said in his Face-book post that some areas’ water supply had been restored, however, “Currently we believe there are in excess of 15-20000 people displaced that include complexes Wild Sea Cabanas, Edwardian, Emoyeni, Glen Eagles. There was no water at the public beach toilets yesterday (on Monday).”
Ugu officials were not available for comment on Monday.
Meanwhile, after a hot and dry spell in many parts of the province in the past few weeks, Umgeni Water spokesman Shami Harichunder said that KwaZulu-Natal still needed significant rainfall.
“If KZN doesn’t get above average rainfall in the next three months, the bid to bring our water supply back to normal will suffer a setback.”