Not only a residents without water for days on end, but the water tanker service is sporadic and unreliable.
ETHEKWINI municipality has called on residents to “reduce” their water usage but angry members of the public have hit back saying that they first need access to water before they can actually cut back the amount they use.
At 4am this morning residents of the greater Queensburgh area as well as Shallcross and Chatsworth were hovering around their taps with bottles and buckets, praying that they would finally have water to drink, take a bath and perform their other chores.
This is how they start every day, and if they do get water it's usually available for only an hour.
The City said it was aware of water supply challenges affecting all areas supplied from the Southern Aqueduct where supply is intermittent. “The construction of the 24km Southern Aqueduct is in progress. This pipeline will bring much-needed relief to downstream areas in the south including Chatsworth and Shallcross,” said spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana.
Water shortages have become part of everyday life across the city since the Durban floods in 2022 which resulted in large scale infrastructure damage.
Pictures of elderly people pushing wheelbarrows filled with water bottles have been posted on WhatsApp groups but the water tankers which are supposed to serve the communities don't follow any schedule and sometimes just never arrive, they say.
“We are tired, emotionally and physically.”
“We have the best sleep patterns in Durban,” read some of the messages on a neighbourhood WhatsApp group.
Rennell Canham the administrator at the Queensburgh Cheshire Home for the Disabled said they had a JoJo tank at the facility but last week they ran out of water and then members of the community and the neighbourhood stepped in to assist.
She said the community was told that there wasn't any water because the reservoir levels were low.
“It affects us especially when it comes to the toilets. It’s very unhygienic, washing dishes, cooking, preparing meals. It's bad because we've got caregivers taking care of the residents and when there is no water, they’ve got to give them bed baths and we have to keep special drinking water for them.”
Canham said they never knew what to expect from day to day and it was unfair on the disadvantaged and the old.
“We're still young, we can get up and carry bottles of water but what about the old people and the ones that can't help themselves? I'm living in this area for almost three years and we always have this problem,” she said.
Queensburgh resident Mario Luis said because of low water levels especially in the Firwood reservoir, those living on the higher lying roads were most affected.
“Since October last year we have not been able to get decent flows and I can send you an outage list numbering the days; five, six, 18 days a month. Now in January I think we are currently sitting on something stupid like 15 days of the month so far,” he said earlier this week.
“17 days, do you really not think that this community is about done with all the talk? We want action. We want running water. Do you understand how mentally drained we are. Just doing the basics is difficult, having to always make a plan for washing clothes. I personally am done and ready to block roads and do whatever it takes to get our area noticed so we can get water,” one resident posted on WhatsApp.
Instead of alarm clocks residents say they are woken up by air moving through the water pipes. Many times it's not followed by any water, yet the air seems to accelerate the pace at which the water meters run and many of them have bills amounting to tens of thousands of rands without a drop of water coming through.
This week the area was also without electricity for hours on end, another problem which is common. Luis said the last time his children had a bath was on Tuesday which was terrible especially in Durban’s humidity. Often they have to visit family or friends in other areas just to wash.
He said in 2023 the community took their water issues to the Human Rights Commission. In their complaint they told the commission that close to a thousand homes were affected which included a block of flats, duplexes and a home for the disabled. They also noted that another 500 to 800 homes which were in the “mid elevations" which were “fortunate” to receive some water also experienced intermittent supplies.
“There's a side of the community that is on the down slope - they don't have a problem, they permanently have water. And this separation can quite literally be my house is on this side of the street, your house is on that side of the street and you have water all week and I've got nothing. So it actually tears the community apart,” he said.
Local councillor Chris Van Den Berg believed that the city’s water problems were only likely to be resolved in 2030. This week he said that apart from problems with the reservoirs which were linked to the Southern Aqueduct, the poor water supply was also exacerbated by several leaks in the Queensburgh area. Pictures seen by the Independent on Saturday showed that many of the leaks were so severe that they resembled fountains.
“I also raised this issue with the Head of Water and begged him for assistance because at one stage we didn't have contract plumbers in the city and we had numerous long outstanding water leaks that were not fixed. Towards the end of last week I was given an assurance that a team was going to be assigned to the area because if we can reduce the loss of water from leaks, that's going to increase the potential for people to get water,” he said.
The City this week said it was important to note that the surge in water demand had outpaced the available supply primarily due to population growth, water leaks caused by vandalism and ageing infrastructure. “The bulk capacity of all three major treatment works supplying the city has been reached. The city has been experiencing water deficit since 2018. To address water supply challenges, we are undertaking a collaborative effort with the National Department of Water and Sanitation and uMngeni-uThukela Water to construct and commission the Lower and Upper uMkhomazi Dam. These are pivotal projects to augment our water supply. In the meantime, consumers must reduce their daily demand to ensure access to water supply to all,” it said.
It said that water rationing was implemented in all parts of the Southern Aqueduct from time to time and that this was an operational decision that was only implemented during periods of high demand.
“The current heat wave and peak season demand has resulted in the spike in water demand. We anticipate that the demand will normalise when temperatures drop, and reservoirs will start to recover. Water tankers are deployed to affected areas and their schedule is communicated with ward councillors and community leaders,” said Sisilana.