Growing water crisis looms for eThekwini

Durban — Ratepayers in eThekwini have urged the City to seek help from experts on the looming “disaster”, which could see some of its areas plunged into “Day Zero” crisis situations.

This was after the water and sanitation department declined the eThekwini Municipality’s request to withdraw its directive to the uMngeni-uThukela Water Board to stop supplying “too much” water to the city.

The Daily News has been reliably informed that the department’s decision was influenced by the eThekwini Municipality’s continued water losses amounting to billions of rands – which led to the uMngeni-uThukela Water oversupplying the city.

Asad Gaffer, chairperson of the eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement, expressed his concern, calling it a disaster for city residents.

Gaffer, who has been very active in service delivery matters, said it was obvious that the problem would come to this since the City’s management had failed to curb water losses. He said the problem was exacerbated by the City’s failure to upgrade the infrastructure.

Gaffer, who is also the leader of the Westville Ratepayers’ Association, said the City must seek help from outside people urgently to avoid the looming disaster.

“As much as we understand that there are indigent people who deserve free water, especially in the informal settlements, there must be meters so that the City is aware of how much water goes where,” said Gaffer.

The City had written to Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina asking that the City continue to receive oversupply from uMngeni Water, which the minister declined.

This was confirmed to the Daily News by Councillor Mdu Nkosi, the chairperson of the trading services portfolio committee. Trading services is a new unit of water, sanitation, electricity and solid waste which has been given to the IFP in eThekwini as part of a deal between the ANC and the IFP that helped smooth the way for the governments of national and provincial unity.

Nkosi said he would meet with his officials to come up with a plan that would ensure that residents were not affected by the decision.

“I can confirm that our request was declined, but I think the mayor will call a media briefing soon where we will outline our plan (to) ensure that the decision does not affect residents,” said Nkosi.

The department had not commented by the time of publication but previously confirmed that it had instructed uMngeni-uThukela Water to stop water oversupply to the city.

In its previous statement, the department said the oversupply meant non-compliance as the water entity was exceeding its authorised surface water abstraction volume.

“The current abstraction is also higher than the water use licence, which has been aligned with the sustainable water resources potential.

“The estimates of real water losses are 41% and 53% non-revenue water in eThekwini, so reducing losses and non-revenue water is critical not only to balance current and future water requirements with availability but also to address the ability to afford new infrastructure,” it said.

The decision meant the residents would have to brace for more water outages. This would also affect tourism as the city gears for an influx of tourists to the shore.

Nkosi said the City had banked on Umkomaas Dam being operational by this time. However, the dam on the South Coast is still under construction and is expected to be completed in 2026.

The City recently bought 100 new water tankers to address water challenges but, with new water restrictions on the way, it looks like more tankers will be needed.

The City currently has 160 tankers on its books, along with 230 privately owned ones. With the new tankers, it will have a fleet of 260.

The City has been besieged by water and sanitation issues for a long time, especially in the northern areas. The problem was attributed to a lot of non-revenue water. The City has been promising to install smart meters.

More water is said to be consumed freely in the informal settlements and many car wash businesses which are not metered.

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Daily News