water outage
Xolani Dlamini|Published
Water supplies may be reduced or interrupted in parts of southern eThekwini and Ugu District Municipality from 8am to 4pm on Thursday, October 15, while Umgeni-uThukela Water (UUW) repairs a leaking South Coast Pipeline.
Durban residents are no strangers to persistent water shortages caused by ageing infrastructure and frequent outages, which continue to disrupt daily life and pose challenges to their health and well-being.
Regular water outages in Durban and neighbouring communities have become a way of life for residents.
Siyabonga Maphumulo, the spokesperson of UUW, said the shutdown was necessary to allow the technical teams to repair a leak identified on a 600mm diameter pipeline between Reservoir 4 and the Quarry Reservoir.
"The South Coast Pipeline receives treated water from the Amanzimtoti Waterworks and supplies bulk water to parts of southern eThekwini as well as part of the Ugu District Municipality.
“During the shutdown, water supply to some areas served by the pipeline may be reduced or interrupted. The repair work is expected to take approximately eight hours, with normal operations anticipated to resume once the repairs have been completed," he said.
Maphumulo encouraged residents and businesses in the affected areas to use water sparingly and avoid non-essential water consumption during this period to help maintain available reservoir storage.
He vowed that the technical teams would endeavour to complete the repairs within the scheduled period and minimise disruptions to water supply.
"UMngeni-uThukela Water apologises to the affected municipalities, residents and businesses for the inconvenience caused. We appreciate their patience and understanding as we undertake this essential maintenance to ensure the continued reliability of bulk water supply," he said.
Maphumulo revealed that there were no tankers prepared for the affected areas.
Andile Ngcobo, 43, a resident of Amanzimtoti, expressed his frustration at the anticipated water shutdown. He said they would struggle to stay hygienic without water.
“Some of us have stomach issues while others are vomiting and suffering from different flu-like symptoms. So without water, we find it difficult to cope," he said.
Ngcobo said the water outages impacted his health.
"I am on medication so I constantly need water to take my medication. I cannot stay a day without water. The saddest thing about this, is that there are no water tankers available to us," he said.
Ian Schoeman, an Athlone Park resident, said the water shutdown would make things difficult for him since he had no equipment for storing water in the case of an outage.
"This means I have to buy buckets for storing water. The water being shut off affected me before and it took about two days to be restored. I was unable to cook meals, use the toilet, or clean my home because I do not store water," said Schoeman.
He said a water tanker came to their area late on the second day of shutdown but he was already asleep.
"I was unable to collect any water. Luckily, the next day, I woke to running taps with water. Hopefully this time the water comes back at the time they say it will," he said.