Durban - A full-scale water crisis has hit KwaZulu-Natal, with restrictions now being enforced on the North and South coasts and water for the Christmas holiday season in jeopardy.
The worst-hit areas were in the Ugu District Municipality (Port Shepstone) and iLembe District Municipality (KwaDukuza-Stanger) which incorporates the Zimbali residential and resort development.
The iLembe municipality held a joint press conference with its water suppliers, Sembcorp Siza Water and Umgeni Water, in Stanger on Monday to warn of the impending crisis.
Umgeni spokesman Shami Harichunder said the level of Hazelmere Dam was 43% and Ugu’s Nungwane and EJ Smith dams were at 35%.
“If we don’t save water now, then we will have dry taps in 150 days unless we get really good rain,” he said.
Hazelmere supplies water to the Ndwedwe Municipality, south of KwaDukuza, including Umhlali and Ballito, and north of eThekwini, including Verulam, Tongaat and Westbrook.
In 2011, Ballito had three days of water shortages over the festive season. The mayor of iLembe, Welcome Mdabe, said the municipality’s Dolphin Coast region had the added challenge of a number of new developments taking place in Ballito as well as the expected influx of holidaymakers in December.
“Siza Water is doing everything to sensitise consumers and we won’t tolerate deliberate wasting of water,” he said. “We are expecting the demand to increase, but we are hoping not to have to implement stage 4 restrictions.”
Stage 4 restrictions are when dams are less than 30% full. Consumers then have to fetch water from tanks placed at strategic positions.
Last week Siza Water implemented stage 3 restrictions to reduce commercial and residential consumption by 30%. Since then it has fined 30 consumers for ignoring the restrictions.
“The minimum fine is R3 000 per incident, but when we are dealing with big customers (like the body corporates of flats), we look at how much they have exceeded their expected consumption and issue a fine accordingly after establishing that it was deliberate,” said Heather Joffe from Siza Water.
Siza Water technical manager Kobus Fourie said new developments in Ballito had increased the demand for “grey water” which was used in construction.
“Most of our consumers understand the severity of the situation and have worked with us to reduce consumption; we are really seeing an improvement,” he said.
The municipality has hired 21 water tankers to add to its fleet of 15 to fast-track supply to four local municipalities (Maphumulo, Ndwedwe, KwaDukuza and Mandeni) should taps run dry.
“We don’t want to have the situation where communities go for four days without water like Maphumulo did when the drought hit in October,” said Mdabe.
He said the Tugela River was not flowing well, so even areas with water and sanitation infrastructure now had to be supplied with tankers because the water treatment plants were under stress.
Besides Hazelmere, eThekwini gets water from the Mooi/uMngeni system which extracts from the Inanda, Midmar, Albert Falls, Nagle and Spring Grove dams.
This is the strongest system in the province at present with dams at more than 70%.
But Harichunder warned people not to be complacent.
“People under this system also need to be aware that no rain was anticipated any time soon so they too need to save water before the municipalities are forced to implement restrictions,” he said.
Recent rains had increased the level of the Umzinto Dam to more than 80% but made no difference to Hazelmere and Ixopo.
If the drought persisted and consumers did not conserve water, eThekwini would have to implement further restrictions in areas that depended on Hazelmere or water would have to be moved from Inanda to northern reservoirs. Good rains were only expected next year. Attempts to get comment from the Ugu District Municipality were unsuccessful.
Lembe/Siza water restrictions:
* Use of hosepipes totally banned.
* No washing of buildings or structures other than for immediate fire control or protection.
* No use of potable water for dust control.
* Known water leaks to be repaired within 24 hours. Dripping taps and toilets to be urgently repaired by consumers.
* Golf courses no longer allowed to use potable water to irrigate.
* Irrigation systems using the potable water system are to be turned off.
* Washing of vehicles, bicycles, motorbikes, trucks, boats, trailers and small planes is allowed only with buckets.
* Refuse trucks and vehicles carrying perishables and food are exempt from these restrictions.
* Fountains and water features to be disconnected from potable water supply.
* Pools may be topped up once a month and no new swimming pools may be built. Jacuzzis are banned.
* Pressure management may be introduced to curb consumption and hence lower water pressure may be experienced.
* Water supply may be interrupted to reduce consumption during the day. Businesses are urged to make appropriate arrangements for their sustainability during those times.
The Mercury