eThekwini Municipality has confirmed that repair work is under way to help give residents living in areas north of Durban access to running water.
On Monday, 'gatvol' residents took to the streets to protest the lack of water.
"The community has been left for days, if not months, without water," residents said. We are not even receiving water via water tanks. We have had multiple officials come through but there seems to be no resolution yet," read messages via community WhatsApp groups.
According to the City's communication's unit, the ongoing heavy rains in the province have caused widespread damage to infrastructure.
"This has resulted in water outages being experienced in some communities, mainly in the south and north regions," it said.
The municipality's repair work is being carried out in oThongathi, where the main bulk pumping pipeline was washed away across the Plein Street River. This line carries water from the oThongathi South Reservoir.
"In the interim, work is being done to restore an emergency pipeline to supply the oThongathi South Reservoir. This is while plans to repair the main pipeline that was washed away are in progress. Teams are also repairing the Metcalf Bulk Pipeline, behind the Tongaat Hulett sugar mill. The pipeline was also damaged during the recent rains. The recent rainfall has resulted in higher levels of turbidity in raw water from Hazelmere Dam," the City said.
eThekwini Municipality said interventions are being implemented for water outages that affected Verulam and Phoenix.
"However, this is dependent on the available water supply. This is due to insufficient water resources to meet the current demands. The Phoenix 2 Reservoir Zone is struggling the most due to the increased number of static water tanks that residents have installed in their homes," the City said.
It explained that the negative impact of having too many static tanks is that the available water supply is not shared equitably among residents. As water fills up in static tanks, some families experience intermittent or no water supply while the reservoir builds up storage.
Many residents across the city have installed tanks, due to the ongoing water crisis.
"In Verulam, necessary refurbishment of pumps at the Mountview and Grange reservoirs will be undertaken. Furthermore, as a long-term solution, alternative sources of supply from boreholes and the Grange Reservoir have been identified and will be implemented," eThekwini Municipality said.
The City added that regular meetings are held between eThekwini Water and Sanitation officials and affected ward councillors to ensure information is cascaded to affected communities.
IOL