A last-minute reprieve has saved an estimated 334‚460 residents from nine-hour water outages – but their water supply will be cut by half during specific time slots.
The City of uMhlathuze‚ which serves Richards Bay and Empangeni‚ said on Wednesday night the impact of the drought‚ had forced it to announce that residents in urban areas would have no water for nine hours after 8pm at night.
The cuts were effective from today‚ Thursday 10 March 2016.
However‚ in an 11th hour turnaround‚ the council said it would not implement the complete outage. Instead‚ water supply would be restricted during the day.
“Water restrictions have been tightened and further reduced to 50% during certain hours of the day... The water cuts are on hold but restrictions are going on‚” city spokesperson Mdu Ncalane told TMG Digital on Thursday.
In urban areas‚ Morning Water Supply of 50% would apply from 5am to 7am and between 4pm-8pm‚ the city authority said in a statement.
The “intense water restrictions” would also affect industries‚ with half of normal supply between 07h00 — 22h00‚ impacting particularly on companies operating in Richards Bay — a major export centre as it is South Africa’s largest deep-water harbour.
Explaining the reasons‚ the City of uMhlathuze said it has “reached a stage of hefty water restrictions due to non-improvement of levels in all source dams.”
“The persistence of drought has lead to our main source Goedetrouw Dam dropping to 24.2%.
“This literally means that we have only 20% of usable water to abstract for human consumption.
“Lake Mzingazi is now averaging 10.2% and Lake Cubhu is staggering at 60%. We have since suspended abstracting in Lake Mzingazi since October 2014 and also reduced abstraction from Cubhu to 5 Mega Litres per Day.
“Restrictions mean that water will be supplied in a low pressure.”
City Mayor Mduduzi Mhlongo urged residents‚ industries and commercial businesses to commit to water conservation strategies until the situation improves.
“The drought situation is not improving and everybody must adhere to any water saving measures. We all have a responsibility to conserve water until we get sufficient rains to improve our dams and lakes levels. We are now at a stage where we have to restrict water and cut supply during certain hours.
“We are warned that if we do not restrict‚ we are in danger of drying up in October‚” said Mhlongo.
Areas north of Durban like Ballito‚ Tongaat and Verulam have had water restrictions imposed on them since last year because of low water levels at the Hazelmere Dam.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube last week asked all municipalities in the drought-ravaged province to reduce water consumption by 15%.
Richards Bay gets reduced water supply‚ spared wholescale outages
A last-minute reprieve has saved an estimated 334‚460 residents from nine-hour water outages – but their water supply will be cut by half during specific time slots.
The City of uMhlathuze‚ which serves Richards Bay and Empangeni‚ said on Wednesday night the impact of the drought‚ had forced it to announce that residents in urban areas would have no water for nine hours after 8pm at night.
The cuts were effective from today‚ Thursday 10 March 2016.
However‚ in an 11th hour turnaround‚ the council said it would not implement the complete outage. Instead‚ water supply would be restricted during the day.
“Water restrictions have been tightened and further reduced to 50% during certain hours of the day... The water cuts are on hold but restrictions are going on‚” city spokesperson Mdu Ncalane told TMG Digital on Thursday.
In urban areas‚ Morning Water Supply of 50% would apply from 5am to 7am and between 4pm-8pm‚ the city authority said in a statement.
The “intense water restrictions” would also affect industries‚ with half of normal supply between 07h00 — 22h00‚ impacting particularly on companies operating in Richards Bay — a major export centre as it is South Africa’s largest deep-water harbour.
Explaining the reasons‚ the City of uMhlathuze said it has “reached a stage of hefty water restrictions due to non-improvement of levels in all source dams.”
“The persistence of drought has lead to our main source Goedetrouw Dam dropping to 24.2%.
“This literally means that we have only 20% of usable water to abstract for human consumption.
“Lake Mzingazi is now averaging 10.2% and Lake Cubhu is staggering at 60%. We have since suspended abstracting in Lake Mzingazi since October 2014 and also reduced abstraction from Cubhu to 5 Mega Litres per Day.
“Restrictions mean that water will be supplied in a low pressure.”
City Mayor Mduduzi Mhlongo urged residents‚ industries and commercial businesses to commit to water conservation strategies until the situation improves.
“The drought situation is not improving and everybody must adhere to any water saving measures. We all have a responsibility to conserve water until we get sufficient rains to improve our dams and lakes levels. We are now at a stage where we have to restrict water and cut supply during certain hours.
“We are warned that if we do not restrict‚ we are in danger of drying up in October‚” said Mhlongo.
Areas north of Durban like Ballito‚ Tongaat and Verulam have had water restrictions imposed on them since last year because of low water levels at the Hazelmere Dam.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube last week asked all municipalities in the drought-ravaged province to reduce water consumption by 15%.
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