Durban’s water woes persist

DURBAN’S water woes went up a notch yesterday when Eskom announced the return of loadshedding, fueling fears that it would aggravate the already critical water shortages.

As temperatures across the municipality soared to 30 degrees, desperate residents, some who had been without water for at least 25 days, gave up hope that the situation would be remedied anytime soon.

On Thursday evening at least one school, Northdene Preparatory, instructed pupils and staff to stay at home.

“The Department of Education was contacted this evening and it was decided that it was in the best interest of our pupils and staff, in regards to health and safety, to not open the school or after care tomorrow as we are uncertain about the water situation,” it said in a message to its parents and teachers.

The municipality said that the areas affected included Umlazi, Folweni, Nsimbini, Golokodo, Adams Mission, Magebheni, KwaMakhutha, Craigieburn, Umkhomazi, Lovu, Umbumbulu, Shongweni, Cato Ridge, Hillcrest, Kloof, Gillits, Kwanyuswa, Bothas Hill, Wyebank, Ntuzuma, Nagina, Luganda, Verulam, Trenance and Inanda.

Minicipal spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said: “Most of our outer lying areas are affected with intermittent supply due to higher-than-normal summer demand associated with the heat wave.”

However, for residents in the greater Queensburgh area like Shallcross, Northdene, Moseley and Firwood it was already around day 25 without water and only sporadic access to water tankers. On Thursday a voice note went viral, pleading for water supplies for residents of the Cheshire Home for the Disabled.

“Absolute rubbish, now we must suffer no power, no water,” said one resident on learning that loadshedding was back. “Time to emigrate,” and “Can it get any worse,” were some of the messages in a WhatsApp group for affected residents.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) called on eThekwini Municipality to exercise greater transparency and better communication with communities affected by water shortages.

Pavershree Padayachee the Commission’s KZN manager told the Independent on Saturday that they were aware of the water challenges and were actively involved in engaging with the municipality and all relevant stakeholders to address the issues in the metro.

“Residents have been experiencing challenges with poor communication from the municipality as well as in securing water tankers and the commission has been working with the relevant parties to facilitate the necessary assistance,” she said.

The commission said that access to water was a constitutional right and was closely interconnected with various other human rights such as the right to human dignity. It said the commission and the municipality had set up a war room meeting platform to facilitate communication as well as a resolution to these on-going challenges.

“The Commission actively participates in these war room meetings in order to assist the parties. The municipality has taken various steps to address the lack of access to water in the Durban North areas, however while doing so they have been experiencing a number of challenges which require time to attend to.”

Padayachee said while attending to those challenges, the municipality had an obligation to ensure that residents were provided with interim measures to access water via water tankers and other means.

“Residents have however reported that they have not been tankers timeously or at all and are being frustrated by the lack of adequate communication. The commission has addressed this with the municipality and will be raising it further during its upcoming war room meeting,” Padayachee said.

She said they were also aware of the situation in Tongaat where citizens have been without a constant water supply since large-scale infrastructure damage occurred as a result of floods in 2022.

“The commission has raised this issue with the municipality and has actively been involved in assisting to secure tankers where these challenges have been brought to our attention by the relevant ward councillors. The commission will also be pursuing this issue in its next war room meeting,” Padayachee said.

She said if the municipality’s water crisis was declared a disaster, it might help the situation. “The declaration of a disaster falls out of the SAHRC’s competency; but one of the ways that this could assist is to be able to secure additional funding,” she said.