Durban - The Ugu District Municipality says it is working around the clock to restore the water supply at the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast town of Izingolweni after a reservoir’s scour valve was opened, resulting in tons of potable water being wasted.
The water-scarce municipality described the latest incident as sabotage, saying it resulted in a massive loss of water and caused water outages in areas surrounding Izingolweni.
On Tuesday, the angry community embarked on a protest and blockaded a number of roads with rocks as they demanded water.
“This takes place at a time when water supply in the area is critical due to limited production at the Umtamvuna Water Treatment Plant, which is being upgraded to respond to the ever-increasing demand,” said municipal spokesperson France Zama.
“We have since opened a case with the police because this, to us, is a criminal matter that needs to be investigated. Reservoirs and pump stations are regarded as national key points and when people enter that place and damage the infrastructure, that means they are breaking the law,” he said.
According to Zama, the reservoir was completely emptied when the base valve was opened.
Earlier this year, the municipality battled to deal with the anger of residents who were without water, workers who were on strike, and water infrastructure being damaged by unknown people.
Zama, however, said this incident had not been linked to the previous unrest.
“We had labour issues back then and most of the sabotage that was happening was around the labour unrest.
“We cannot at this point link this incident to the previous incidents. We will, however, allow the investigation to take its course,” he said.
Zama said immediate relief measures had been put in place to supply water tankers to the affected areas.
The Mercury