The community of Trenance Park in Verulam north of Durban has taken to the streets demanding water. They claim to have been without water for the past three months and the water supplied with tankers is intermittent and is not enough for the community.
Using tyres and other rubble, angry residents barricaded entrances to the area. They say they’ve been without water 96 days. Close to 2 000 households say they have been left in the lurch to fend for themselves.
“Had been without running water in their taps for 96 consecutive days, that is a dire situation. It has reached a humanitarian crisis where children are getting sick, the elderly are falling and getting injured trying to get water, it is unbearable and we need urgent intervention from government. We have failed with the municipality now we have called on the municipality now we have called on the national government to intervene in this crisis,” says Roshan Lil-Ruthan of Verulam Water Crisis Community.
The community has vowed to continue protesting until they get water.
“It’s really a struggle, we have got roads that are uphill, there is no place for tankers to park, people have to walk sometimes 15 minutes to the entrance of the road to get water. If we do get tankers, they come around 11 or 12 in the evening. This is a high crime ridden area and we cannot think about our safety or whether we want our safety first. We are failing to send our children to school because of hygiene issues,” a community member says.
“I’m not getting any answers regarding the water, if you look at it, who would wake up at 12 o’clock, one o’clock in the night to go fill water when the crime is so high here, we are going to get mugged, we must go and fill,” another resident explains.
FILE Video: Verulam residents without water:
Ward councillor Nkosiyezwe Mhlongo visited the community and promised that water will be restored. Mhlongo says the problem is the ageing water infrastructure but that municipal engineers are working on it.
“We have not been able to hold community meetings because the office of speaker was closed in November last year. I would like to ensure the community that water will be running in their taps by end of today. Our problem as eThekwini Municipality is the ageing infrastructure, that is why we have such challenges. We know that the community had bleak holidays. They didn’t have water on Christmas Day, our team is on the ground,”
Verulam residents have reported their water crisis to the South African Human Rights Commission to investigate the root cause of the problem.
Angry Verulam residents protests demanding water be restored to the area:
