Durban - eThekwini Municipality said the City is aware illegal pump station connections have caused the interruption of water supply in Malabar Hills in Isipingo south of Durban.
The city said on Wednesday that the water supply interruption is a result of illegal connections to the pump station, which pumps water from the Malabar Hills Reservoir.
This stops water from flowing from the reservoir to the community, thus causing outages, it said.
“The City has on numerous occasions disconnected the illegal connections in the area, but these are immediately reconnected illegally by residents from nearby informal settlements. This results in the system being overloaded and causes trips,” said the municipality.
The municipality said the City’s Water Department and Electricity Units are engaging with the eThekwini Municipality’s Security Department to chart a way forward.
“eThekwini Municipality is appealing to the community to work together to clamp down on this unlawful conduct as it impedes the City from delivering basic services consistently.
“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and appeal to affected residents to bear with us as we work towards resolving the problem,”it said.
The municipality said water tankers had been dispatched to provide relief while the City works on a long-term solution.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident last month, The Mercury’s sister publication, the Daily News, reported that a suspected copper thief believed to be behind a power outage in Isipingo was electrocuted.
The report said the body of the suspected copper thief was discovered by City employees at the Isipingo sub-station.
“City technicians were responding to an outage affecting residents of Isipingo and surrounding areas when they discovered extensive damage at the sub-station.
“An electrocuted body was also discovered. The deceased is believed to have been a copper thief,” the municipality said.