The Democratic Alliance in eThekwini has called on stakeholders to introspect on the various excuses proffered to consumers on why they have no water. The water woes in eThekwini predate the April 2022 floods and in the latest crisis Umgeni-Uthukela water has cited a spike in algae blooms that has prevented the process of purifying water effectively causing massive rolling outages.
During yesterday’s full Council meeting, eThekwini Head of Water and Sanitation, Ednick Msweli made an unannounced urgent presentation on the current water crisis at the Durban Heights Water Treatment Works.
According to Msweli, had Umgeni-UThukela water not dramatically reduced production then, the safety of clean drinking water would be compromised, they needed to clean the filters and then backwash the filters.
This resulted in water levels in Umgeni-UThukela waters reservoir, Durban heights treatment works, falling to critical levels which caused widespread water disruptions in the Northern areas.
As of today, water production has improved and the supply line has limited water back in it bringing some slight relief, normal production volumes and the capacity of the Durban height reservoir may take up to a further two weeks.
We are disappointed with the City’s response and communication to both councillors and the affected communities.
As the DA we have demanded that investigations be conducted with a view to consequence management as this crisis was completely avoidable. Algae does not grow to this alarming point overnight and eThekwini Municipality and Umgeni-Uthukela must account for this.
Residents are expected to brace themselves for further water restrictions as Umgeni-Uthukela intends restricting flow to the northern areas by at least 10% by October as they cite supply versus demand issues.
There is no immediate silver bullet to remedy this mess.
As the DA we have twice, formally proposed that eThekwini municipality produce its own water instead of purchasing almost 98% of its water from Umgeni-Uthukela. This is the only short term measure that might assist and carry eThekwini in good stead in the long term as well. Decentralized water treatment may also mitigate vast areas being subjected to rolling outages in the future.
Residents have run out of time. We call on the city leadership to urgently review our bulk supply agreements and reliance on projects like the Umkhomazi project that are a decade away.