Durban - Temporary relief is in sight for KZN south coast residents dealing with an intermittent water supply because of a broken pump.
The Ugu District Municipality is using tankers to provide water for inland areas.
Municipal spokesperson France Zama said the municipality had 30 water tankers.
Six of the tankers were pulled out of the rural areas to service inland areas affected by a broken pump at the Mthavuna water plant.
Zama could not say how many residents were affected, but said most towns including Leisure Bay, Port Edward, San Lameer and Palm Beach were affected.
He said that because of the fewer pumps now operating at the plant,
the municipality was not pumping water inland as there was not
enough pressure and capacity, and
was providing tankers for these residents instead.
Zama said a new pump had to be brought from Germany.
In the interim, a group of engineers were working on a temporary repair of the broken unit.
He said the pump had been taken to Durban for this purpose and they expected it to arrive back by the end of the weekend.
“We are hoping that by next
week the installation will be complete,” he said.
This week, roads were blockaded in the Port Edward and Ezinqoleni areas, and the N2 going to Paddock, as residents protested over not having water for over a week, and without tankers coming through.
Zama said the municipality’s budget for maintenance had been approved and some of the money would be used to buy spare pumps so that they are always to hand.
DA councillor Dave Watson said the municipality was faced with
the same pump problem three
months ago.
“We hope that this reinforces the body of evidence that a full investigation of the municipality must be done with the aim of looking at putting the municipality under administration,” he said.
Leisure Bay resident Prince Gumede said the situation was frustrating.
“The water bill keeps going up, but we always have no water. The city needs to get their act together,” he said.