Durban - AT LEAST 200 pensioners have been without water in their retirement
village in Inchanga since last Thursday.
Numerous calls to the eThekwini Municipality left the pensioners’
questions unanswered.
Cathleen Lapinsky, 70, said she and her husband are in quarantine after her dog was diagnosed and
hospitalised with parvo - a contagious virus in puppies which without treatment could be deadly.
Lapinsky said her four-month-old dog had diarrhoea and vomited everywhere. Everything the dog touched got infected. They also had to throw out the dog’s blankets, she added.
“A lady from animal rescue had come over to help but two of her dogs ended up dying because she carried the virus with her,” Lapinsky said.
She said they could start an
epidemic because of the apathy from the eThekwini Municipality.
Another pensioner at the retirement home, Dawn Leppan, said over the weekend she saw nine water
tankers but none of them went to the home.
Leppan said not having water had also affected schooling yesterday.
“A 350-children school was
without water. Another school sent their children home on the first day of school,” Leppan said.
A manager at the home said they had not received a proper reason from the municipality as to why they had prolonged water cuts.
He said they only received a reprieve late on Sunday night.
“We called the municipality
support line on several occasions and they couldn’t pinpoint the issue or problem,” he said.
He said the home was a gated community which housed about 200 elderly people over the age of 50 and having no water was inconvenient for pensioners.
He said there was no indication when the water would be restored.
Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the reason behind was water cuts was because the city was upgrading infrastructure to meet the demand for water in the north-western areas.
“The city is now connecting these areas to the western aqueduct main pipe that takes water from the Midmar Dam to these areas as a long term solution to water shortages,” Mayisela said.
“During this process of connection, there will be instances where there are shutdowns for certain periods, resulting in certain residents not having access to water and we sincerely
apologise in this regard.”
He said they would increase the number of water tankers to ensure all residents had water.