Water Minister Senzo Mchunu has defended the eThekwini Municipality’s failure to meet the February 15th deadline to restore water supply to areas in the north of the city.
This was Mchunu’s second visit to Phoenix and Verulam this month. Residents in some parts of Verulam claim they have been without water for four months.
Mchunu’s return to Phoenix and Verulam saw him defending a deadline he had promised residents himself earlier this month.
The eThekwini Municipality has attributed the delay to ongoing repairs to the installation of new valves. Mchunu also laid blame to acts of vandalism and load shedding.
“We met the deadline as per our commitment, by the 15th people are getting water. In the main, in Mount View reservoir it was full and got a supplier of water by the 15th. Reservoir in Phoenix got the supplier and the number of reservoirs got the supplier but immediately when they started building levels, there was some interference. Firstly, it was a vandalised electric box somewhere which then cut the supplier as it was building up as people were getting water,” says Mchunu.
The eThekwini Municipality has confirmed a planned shutdown of the northern aqueduct pipeline on Tuesday, February 20th, for at least a day to carry out the installations.
