Eskom, broken infrastructure blamed for KZN south coast water outages

The Ugu district municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast has blamed malfunctioning infrastructure and a power outage for taps running dry in several areas.

Infuriated residents in areas that fall under the municipality have faced water outages since last week.

A Port Shepstone resident who did want to be named told TimesLIVE his water supply had returned on Friday after more than a week.

“It wasn’t even four weeks ago since the last water outage, which lasted four days, and again there were no tanks, tankers or even feedback from them as to what is happening with the system.

“It’s really become a nightmare living here.”

The resident said a tank meant to supply water during outages had been empty during the latest crisis.

“Children and the old are coming to get water, only to walk away disappointed. It’s having a bad impact on us. If our home tank runs dry, we are forced to spend R400 to buy 1,000l of water from companies on the south coast. If we don’t have the money, we have to join the lines or find a tank that has water.”

He said the water shortage had led to some residents brawling at water points.

“There is no remorse from the municipality and every time this happens, they tell you the system is old and they don’t have the money to fix it.”

Other residents from Umtentweni, Park Rynie and Hibberdene have voiced their anger on the Ugu Complaints Facebook page, which is dedicated to water issues. Some have threatened to not vote for the ANC at the polls next year.

Municipal spokesperson France Zama said the “municipality acknowledges that some residents had been with intermittent supply on their taps from Saturday. 

“This was due to a major pipe break found in the Umzimkulu Sugar Mill. Work on the repairs commenced on Monday morning and was completed on Tuesday due to the complexity of the repair work needed.

“Once repairs were completed, the recovery plan was to first fill up the command reservoir in Umzimkulu to a healthy state.

“The second step was to open water downstream to fill the two reservoirs in order to supply the areas affected. Upon these two reservoirs filling up to a healthy stage, the focus was then on the Melville Command Reservoir, where water coming from Umzimkulu was to be directed to Melville. This normally takes about three days.

“The last step was to then bypass Melville to charge downstream and eventually open Melville to boost lower and upper Wood Grange and Fairview reservoirs. This normally takes seven days to recover.

“Most areas from Tweni, Southport, Anerley have already reported restoration since Wednesday. Only a few streets in Southport are still without water. However, our teams are on the ground releasing air from the system,” said Zama.

On Wednesday the municipality said its Mnini water pump station was inactive because of a power outage. This had resulted in water outages in several areas, including Mahlongwa, Mandawe, Dlangezwa, Okhalweni, Scottburgh, Pennington, Park Rynie, Freeland Park and Kelso.

“Restoration of bulk water supply from the south coast pipeline is dependent on Eskom power supply recovery at Mnini,” the municipality said.

TimesLIVE