DURBAN - The uMhlathuze community said the issue of water outages has been ongoing for many years, with the municipality failing to find a permanent solution.
Esikhaleni community member Liyema Shezi said the communities have had enough and were now reaching their boiling point as the latest water outage had started last Thursday and was yet to be resolved.
“If you go to eSikhawini, Esikhaleni, and other areas of Richards Bay, you'll see people walking around with buckets looking for water. Some go as far as collecting from the river while others are buying it. It’s a serious issue, and being left without water for over five days is frustrating,” she said.
The City of uMhlathuze confirmed that they were experiencing water supply challenges that were affecting the eSikhaleni Cluster.
The city said this was due to a power outage since Thursday.
“ESikhaleni Water Treatment Works at Cubhu Lake is supplied directly by Eskom and supported by two diesel generators,” said city spokesperson, Mdu Ncalane.
Ncalane said apart from the power outage, the generators were also affected by the general shortage of diesel caused by last week’s riots.
He said the shortage of fuel is also affecting the distribution of water via tankers from the city fleet and from private operators.
“The city is in the process of securing the diesel supply to activate the generators. The capacity of the generators is a maximum of only five hours of operation per day.
Currently, all reservoirs are dry, which poses a great challenge to areas of eSikhaleni Cluster, namely, Mpembeni, eSikhaleni township, Gobandlovu, Madlankala, Port Dunford, Felixton, Vulindlela, iNiwe, Dlangezwa and outer lying areas, said Ncalane.
He added that the city would communicate the water tankers distribution plan as soon as it secures diesel.
THE MERCURY