Frustrated KwaDukuza residents took to the streets to protest over ongoing water outages that appear to be getting worse.
They blamed the district municipality for failing to maintain infrastructure which caused taps to run dry in Stanger Manor, Warrenton, High Ridge, Oceanview, and Mbozamo suburbs.
They also criticised the municipality’s relief efforts via water tankers as “inadequate”.
Residents accused the municipality of “failing miserably” in their duty to provide water, a basic necessity.
Ongoing water services challenges have continued to plague the district municipality which core function is to provide water and sanitation to all 4 local municipalities in the region (KwaDukuza, Ndwedwe, Maphumulo and Mandeni) except for the concession areas covered by Siza Water, between the Tongaat River and the Umvoti River and incorporates the urban areas of Zimbali, Ballito, Salt Rock, Sheffield Beach and Tinley Manor.
However, on Monday iLembe district municipality (IDM) mayor, Cllr Siduduzo Gumede denied that IDM had failed to maintain and invest in water and sanitation infrastructure, nor was its administrative and technical knowledge to blame.
Gumede blamed power supply interruptions, loadshedding and emergency repairs by Umgeni Water for the water problems.
“Our infrastructure is not immune to loadshedding and this has negatively impacted our ability to supply water to the communities.”
“Supply to the Stanger Manor, Warrenton, High Ridge, Shakaville and Kearsney, is all dependent on pumps to be able to supply water to the consumers.”
Gumede said water supply was dependent on the availability of power at the Umvoti water works and various pump stations.
He said IDM had bought 2 generators to overcome power interruptions.
They were also at the early stages of installing a dedicated powerline from KwaDukuza substation to two pump stations as the rural supply feed from KDM was inadequate.
Gumede said when IDM took over the Umvoti water treatments works from Umgeni Water in 2017, the operation was in a bad state with critical infrastructure compromised due to age and lack of maintenance.
R14.25 million has been spent to upgrade and improve the capacity of the plant and a further R5.75 million had been spent on maintenance.
In his 2019/20 third quarter municipal budget performance review speech, KZN MEC Ravin Pillay flagged iLembe as one of the districts with the lowest spending on repairs and maintenance (48.8%).
Cllr Gumede said the replacement of ageing infrastructure on the reticulation system in Warrenton and Shakaville which started in June 2020 was 75% complete.
However, DA ward councillor MS Sing said the municipality was in a state of crisis and accused the mayor of being in denial.
“His attitude must change and he must listen to the cries of the people.”
