Durban - Ugu District Municipality residents are left with dry taps as vandalism of infrastructure continues to cripple the functioning of the South Coast municipality.
According to the municipal spokesperson, France Zama, their teams are working to conduct repairs to the infrastructure that was vandalised yesterday morning.
Zama said recently, the Umzinto waste water pump station was vandalised by unknown suspects.
“It is believed, vandals broke the door and security gate to gain access,” said Zama.
Zama said motor cables were stolen while all electrical components such as generators, control box and cables were vandalised. He said this resulted in raw sewage spillages.
“Our team is busy conducting and assessing the extent of the damage in order to source spares and replace all the components,” he said.
Another line which feeds water supply to areas including Gamalakhe and parts of Shelly Beach was also vandalised, resulting in clean water being wasted. Zama said technicians were dispatched to the scene.
Zama warned that vandalism of infrastructure was a criminal offence and such acts would not be tolerated.
He said that these criminal acts would destroy not only the municipality’s economy, but also robbed many residents of their basic rights to water and sanitation.
“While our teams are busy trying to open closed valves and restore water to communities, criminals continue vandalising our infrastructure.”
The DA has written to the KZN police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khombinkosi Jula calling for urgent action to be taken to stop the acts of “sabotage”.
DA MPL Rishigen Viranna said the massive water outages have started again in the area.
He said this impacted 150 000 residents, with the poor, elderly, disabled, and the vulnerable being the most affected.
He added that the municipality had opened at least four cases at the Port Shepstone police station but no action had been taken by the police.
“Due to this lack of action, these acts of sabotage have continued with impunity and have a massive negative impact on the communities living on the KZN South Coast,” said Viranna.
Mercury