The DA in KwaZulu-Natal has called on the South African Human Rights Commission to intervene in the ongoing water crises faced by many Durban residents.
The party’s provincial leader Francois Rodgers said in the memorandum directed at the commission that, “It is no secret that the situation in eThekwini is catastrophic. Since the Floods in 2022, the water situation in the eThekwini Municipality, particularly in the North of Durban encompassing Phoenix, oThongathi, Durban North, Greenwood Park, Glenashley, Virginia, Sunningdale and uMhlanga has become progressively worse with each passing day.”
He said the residents of Bester have been without water for 14 years. The community of oThongathi which has been without water now for 90 days and counting. In Phoenix, water outages happen on a daily basis. In Durban North and uMhlanga, they were left without water for 8 days towards the end of 2023.
“Our communities bear the brunt of these continued outages with no explanation from the eThekwini Municipality and almost no solutions to the problem,” said Rodgers.
The party called on the commission to continuously engage with City officials and the members of the executive committee to determine who is at fault for the collapse of water services in the city.
– To engage with the uMngeni-uThukela Water Board to determine that the supply of water to the city is adequate to meet current demands and whether the current supply is within the prescripts of their water licence.
– To further engage with City officials and members of the executive committee as to why the water tanker services are unable to address the supply of water during prolonged water outages.
– And to engage the national department of Water and the Minister to determine what, if any, action is being taken to normalise the supply of water
– Engage the provincial department of Co-operative Governance and the MEC to determine what action is being taken to normalise the supply of water.
The minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu was scheduled to meet with some of the affected residents on Sunday afternoon.
The Mercury