Durban — Opposition parties in eThekwini have blamed the leadership of the ANC-led municipality for the 8.4% water curtailment which will be implemented by uMngeni-uThukela Water next week.
Reacting to the announcement by Mayor Cyril Xaba in a council meeting on Monday that the water entity will begin reducing water supply to the City, the parties lashed out at the City’s leadership, saying this was a result of their incompetence in dealing with water challenges timeously.
In his report to the council, the mayor said the City’s request to the department to extend uMngeni-uThukela Water’s “oversupply” – that was declined – meant the water entity would reduce its water supply to the City by 8.4%.
The DA said the worsening water crisis in the municipality was due to the leadership’s failure to mitigate its own water losses and now forcing consumers to bear the brunt of years of mismanagement of this critical unit.
“Millions of rand later – with the eThekwini Water and Sanitation (EWS) unit promising action plans, master plans and a war on leaks – the crisis has worsened. The bottom line is that EWS has failed to address the elephant in the room – exorbitant water losses over the years.
“One has to ask, would consumers be burdened with restrictions on tap water? The DA condemns the fact that the unit has been unable to turn itself around resulting in taxpayers being hit with tariff hikes and suffering the exhausting daily routines of relying on water from tankers.”
The DA said less water in the system may also cause a strain on sanitation, as the system needs adequate water to ensure optimal functioning of the sewer systems.
The eThekwini Municipality must be accountable for the water woes residents face as it is a culmination of failures, lack of preventative maintenance, lack of fore-planning and the dismal track record in repairing leaks and bursts that brought the city to this point.
Imtiaz Syed of the Active Citizens Coalition questioned whether it was a good idea to burden ratepayers with the cost of water being supplied freely to indigent people.
“We must note the burden on ratepayers to subsidise the water the city gives away for free – at 46% of total consumption monthly.
“Active Citizens Coalition calls for that burden to be clearly measured and the costs passed on to the provincial government to assume their responsibility of subsidising the indigent as part of the national policy.”
Other parties were also concerned with the City’s failure to fix water leaks.
uMngeni-uThukela Water has been pumping an unauthorised 1 406 megalitres a day to eThekwini Municipality instead of the authorised 1287 megalitres which meant the City was being oversupplied by 118 megalitres a day.
The mayor blamed this high water usage on rapid urbanisation, ageing infrastructure, leaks and illegal connections.
“For this reason, the Department of Water and Sanitation has imposed water curtailment on the system which comes into effect on October 10, 2024.
“The City will be implementing water rationing where demand is too high or exceeds available supply and put restrictors in water meters to all consumers,” said the mayor.
To deal with non-revenue water losses, the City will meter all unmetered consumers, improve turnaround time in repairing leaks and pipe bursts via the deployment of ward-based plumbers, and disconnect all illegal connections.
The mayor pleaded with the residents to work with the City to save water.
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Daily News