DURBAN - OTHONGATHI residents continue to suffer due to water shortages and some are falling victim to profiteers looking to take advantage of the crisis.
The community has been without water for several weeks following the floods that destroyed water infrastructure in the area in April.
The water shortage has led to frustrations felt by community members, who held protests this week.
It has emerged that two problems are at the centre of the community’s frustrations. They said there was no predictable schedule for the water deliveries and at times the tankers did not keep to the scheduled times.
They also alleged that unscrupulous business people were taking advantage of the crisis by “stealing” municipal water and selling it at exorbitant prices to the community.
The municipality announced on Wednesday that it has appointed a contractor to rebuild oThongathi Water Treatment Works, which was destroyed during the floods. It was expected that the contractor would be introduced to the community by today.
ActionSA councillor Busi Radebe said they had visited the area and donated some Jojo tanks.
She said they were briefed on the problems faced by residents, including that they did not know when the water tankers would be coming to deliver to their areas.
“There have been allegations that the water was being delivered at 10pm or when the people have gone to work and only the elderly are still at home. The elderly cannot be expected to fetch water or carry buckets of water up the stairs to their flats.
“We have seen communities protesting and damaging the infrastructure that is already fragile because it had been damaged by a storm.”
She said ActionSA and other organisations had donated Jojo tanks that had been placed in common areas to allow the community easy access to water.
“The least that the municipality can do is to ensure that all these Jojo tanks are filled up.”
DA councillor in the area Yogis Govender said the main challenge was that even when tankers were scheduled to arrive at a particular time, they failed to arrive and showed up much later.
“These tankers do not pre-load the night before, so if a tanker is scheduled to arrive at 7am, they might arrive at 11am as they have to wait in the queue either to fill up water or diesel.”
She said there were private individuals delivering water at their own cost.
“There are also people who are profiteering. They take water from a fire hydrant and sell it to community members for R2 000 or more to fill up a Jojo tank.”
Deputy mayor Philani Mavudla said recently that the city had ensured that there were enough water tankers delivering in the area. “I can even tell you the mileage on those water tankers.”
The city said a total of 48 static tanks have also been installed. Furthermore, there are 11 boreholes as well as a donated package plant to provide non-drinking water to the area. Procurement processes are under way to drill more boreholes.
THE MERCURY