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Communities in eThekwini bracing themselves for a year of water rationing to begin on Monday

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eThekwini Water and Sanitation has confirmed it will start with water shedding on Monday. Water will be rationed in parts of KwaZulu-Natal as a result of pipe damage caused by the recent floods.

The City says areas that get their water from the Durban Heights Water Treatment Plant will be affected. Water-shedding will continue for the next 10-12 months, according to eThekwini Water and Sanitation head, Ednick Msweli.

“The 12 months is the worst case, we don’t see it lasting any longer than that. All of this starts with the storm damage that happened on the 11th of April. There are four pipelines that supply this particular water works with raw water, two of those were damaged in the last storm that we’ve had, so which means, as part of that we’ve lost about 40 mega litres of the capacity in terms of the volume of water it should be supplying us,” says Msweli.

Buyisiwe Dlamini from Ntuzuma runs a kitchen that provides food and water for people who have been displaced by the floods. She says they use up to 700 litres of water a week.

“Water cuts will affect us because we need a lot of water as we are cooking for flood survivors. we won’t be able to cook out three meals and wash dishes. We are cooking for flood victims,” says Ntuzuma.

VIDEO: Ethekwini Municipality to begin water shedding on Monday

‘Use water sparingly’

Meanwhile, the Ethekwini Municipality has urged the City’s residents to use water sparingly, ahead of rotational interruption to services.

Msweli says the rationing is meant to enable the repair process says, “Due to the storm damage that happened in April, we are now getting system mega litres less water supply. So this rationing is planning to do to restore the additional 10% to the 90%. With that 10%, some areas are not getting water all the time, the intensive work of the rioting I to spread across the 90% water to everybody. So we will be shutting vaults for about four hours a day. That’s the cooperation we are looking for from residents that they voluntarily just reduce and we are monitoring that.”

Water bills 

The Municipality has also urged residents who are unhappy with the amount that they are being billed for water to contact them. It says water meter reading will continue as normal, but they urge residents to monitor their water bills.

“Most bills will be accurate because most meters are still being read. However, if a customer has a problem with the meter reading or a bill seems too high or abnormal, they can approach our offices and we will look at the individual bill and see where the problem is. If there is a problem it will be attended to and the bill will be adjusted accordingly.”

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