Durban - The Ugu District Municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast said load shedding has had a devastating effect on its water supply over the past week.
The municipality made the announcement in a statement on Monday afternoon.
Municipal spokesperson France Zama said the continuous electricity blackouts during the past week, had resulted in major water supply disruptions across the district.
Zama said this was due to the fact that most water treatment works were highly reliant on Eskom’s power supply to operate effectively.
“Following the implementation of stage 3 load shedding yesterday [Sunday], the municipality has earnestly resumed with the process of recovering and restoration of most water supply systems which have been gravely affected by the constant power blackouts,” he said.
Zama said water relief operations through water tankers had resumed as most of the municipality’s water tanker filling points had gradually improved.
“Relief supply will be prioritised to areas which were hugely affected by water supply disruptions considering the limited available resources in this regard,” he said.
The municipality appealed for calm and patience from residents while it continued to affect recovery measures of the water supply systems,
Eskom implemented stage 6 load shedding on September 18 which was downgraded on September 25.
On Sunday, Eskom said: “Stage 3 loadshedding will continue to be implemented between 00:00 and 16:00 until Thursday, while Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented daily during the evening peaks from 16:00 until 00:00.”