Durban - The eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal has explained the ongoing water outages in various areas within its boundaries.
The city has absolved itself of any blame, adding that these outages would soon be a thing of the past from as early as January.
In November alone, the city recorded several water outages, with some communities resorting to violent public protests in order to be heard.
In one incident, the community of Inanda and Ntuzuma in the north of Durban closed the Curnick Ndlovu highway after going for days without water.
Similarly, Richmond farm between KwaMashu and Lindelani and Mzinyathi just after Inanda township reported water outages.
In the south, the area of Umbumbulu has been experiencing water shortages for months now and some residents have alleged that even water tankers have stopped coming to provide relief water.
In the west, the area of KwaNyuswa near Botha’s Hill has also experienced similar water challenges.
The city’s spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela, told IOL on Wednesday that intermittent, restricted and constrained water supply in Umbumbulu and surrounding areas was caused by the breakdown of infrastructure due to day-to-day maintenance, rehabilitation and renewal or upgrade of the infrastructure.
“In the case of Umbumbulu areas, the recent challenges have been encountered in the rehabilitation and renewal part where the water supply was disrupted due to planned maintenance work done by Sanral on the Umgeni Water supply pipe that feeds part of eThekwini metropolitan area.
“The intermittent supply has also been caused by inadequate supply to Umbumbulu command reservoir, which will now be improved through the Eston Booster pump station, which is currently at commissioning stage due for completion by December 2022.
“Improved supply to these areas is expected from mid-December 2022 onwards once the system has recovered from the disruption of supply and capacitated from the new booster pump station,” Mayisela said.
Mayisela attributed KwaMashu, Ntuzuma and Inanda water outages to an ongoing water scheme that was halted because of several challenges.
“Ntuzuma, KwaMashu and surrounding areas loosely referred to as the INK areas have been experiencing challenges of intermittent water supply for some time due to reduced supply of water from the Durban Heights Water Treatment Works, which has been under upgrade projects for the past few years.
“The upgrade projects encountered various delays, including legal suits, and ended up moving delivery dates from June 2022 to December 2022.
“Once completed, the refurbishment of the mega storage reservoir at Durban Heights Water Treatment Works referred to a Res 3 will bring about improved supply to the mentioned areas.
“Day-to-day maintenance continues until the upgrade project is complete.”
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