eThekwini Municipality's water curtailment project has officially commenced.
The project, expected to run for the next 12 months is being implemented in a bid to reduce the volume of water abstracted from the uMgeni system to their licenced volumes of 470 million m3/annum.
"This will mean a reduction on the current sales and abstraction volume of 8.4%," the City said.
The City dispelled rumours about the curtailment being water shedding.
This is how it will be implemented:
* Installation of restrictors in water metres to all consumers
* Pressure reduction in the reticulation network
* Metering all unmetered consumers
* Improve turnaround time in repairing leaks and pipe bursts through deployment of ward-based plumbers
* Community education in water conservation
* Disconnection of illegal connections
"The water curtailment is not water shedding where there is a schedule for water cuts at certain times. However, the purpose of the water curtailment is to avoid water shedding by bringing down the total volume used in a controlled manner," the municipality said.
During this process, the City’s teams will be monitoring the system and manage excessive water demand.
The curtailment was announced by City mayor, Cyril Xaba, earlier this month.
Speaking at a joint briefing with the UMngeni-uThukela Water Board, Xaba said the curtailment is aimed to enable continued water availability, including during periods of below-average rainfall.
He said the risk of not enforcing the abstraction limit is that, should a drought occur, there would not be sufficient water in the system for uMngeni-uThukela Water to continue providing the eThekwini Municipality with a reliable water supply.
"The water curtailment is not water shedding where there is a schedule for water cuts at certain times. However, the purpose of the water curtailment is to avoid water shedding by bringing down the total volume used in a controlled manner," the mayor said.
"We urge residents to use water sparingly to assist in reducing the high consumption. As we have indicated in the previous media briefings, the demand for water in eThekwini far outstrips supply and we continue to plead with all stakeholders both our residential and business customers to work with us to address this challenge," Xaba said.
IOL News