Durban — The SA Human Rights Commission’s Provincial Inquiry on Access to Water started at the Gateway Hotel in Umhlanga on Monday.
The inquiry, which runs over five days, stems from systemic challenges around access to water across various districts in KwaZulu-Natal, which were exacerbated by the recent floods.
The commission said it was holding the inquiry after receiving complaints on challenges about access to water over the years.
“There has been an increase in the number of these complaints, resulting in us being inundated with these matters. The areas affected span various districts in the province, which appears to be a systemic human rights violation,” said KZN SAHRC acting provincial manager Pavershree Padayachee.
The inquiry will examine issues with the aim of coming up with a solution.
Don Perumall, the chairperson of the Tongaat Civic Association, said it was the 126th day that oThongathi residents were without tap water. He said the failure of the municipality to intervene after the floods was a violation of the law because the moment the president declared a disaster it should have been fixed quickly.
Perumall said residents woke to no water and returned from work to no water. He said the municipality had failed to communicate and work with residents to solve the crisis, and use fair methods of allocating water because there were insufficient water tankers.
“We could have possibly had water today had this matter been taken seriously. We believe that the municipality’s failure to implement the section 26 regulation immediately has affected our human dignity and right to have respect and be protected,” he said.
Charley Chetty, who is also with the association, said the municipality was discriminating in the way it supplied water because some places were attended to faster than others.
Residents of Ugu on the South Coast have also endured years of water shortages, which have affected them disproportionately.
David Watson from the Ugu Ratepayers’ Association said the water crisis had had a huge impact on the elderly, the disabled and children in school.
Watson said children had had to fetch water every morning before going to school, making them late, and had to fetch water again when they returned. He said this was not the way any child should live.
Further, girls have to skip school when they were on their period because there was no water.
Sibongile Mtungwa of the Women’s Leadership and Training Programme also mentioned how hard it was for pupils in schools, as they were expected to bring water to the feeding scheme team in school so that they could eat.
Daily News