More districts face water shortages

The Umlalazi Municipality that includes Eshowe in the King Cetshwayo District in northern KwaZulu-Natal are battling water shortages.

They say they go weeks without access to clean drinking water. In the recent past, the community has resorted to protests.

Resident Thanda Cebekhulu says while the local municipality did supply water storage tanks, these sometimes run empty.

“The issue of water is very painful in our area. Although they installed Jojo tankers by our councilors, the problem is the water tankers only deliver water once a week or sometimes we can go the entire week without water being delivered.”

Meanwhile, King Cetshwayo District Municipality Mayor Thami Ntuli has acknowledged the water shortages. He says they need about a billion rand to repair the aging infrastructure .

“That is a huge problem or the major problem we are faced with, which we actually discovered when we arrived here in King Cetshwayo; the issue of aging infrastructure and unfortunately the funds of trying to maintain and repair the aging are not there. Considering the magnitude of the problem, water problems that we are having, I think more than a billion may be required to only fix the problem.”