Durban - Ugu District Municipality has urged citizens residing between Port Edward and Ramsgate (coastal), from kweNkosi Nzimakwe to Mbeni (inland), to take note of the impact that ongoing load shedding is having on the water supply.
On Monday, municipal spokesperson France Zama said that the Umtamvuna Dam has run out of raw water storage and the plant has depleted.
“As planned Eskom outages/load shedding, currently in stage 4, continue to affect bulk abstraction, purification and distribution activities. This causes numerous hours of downtime and reduces the amount of raw water that can be purified and distributed to reticulation,” he said.
The municipality has implemented an urgent intervention plan to immediately suspend purification and distribution operations as from today (Monday) and reopen on Thursday.
“This is to boost the dam storage and reduce distribution delays during the power outage from Thursday in the morning through at least Saturday, January 28, 2023,” said Zama.
Ugu said the current plant level is 0%:
- Nzimakwe pump station is off, due to low level of BP2.
- Florida, Nodalane and KwaXolo are below 10%.
- Goqoza, KwaXolo and Shobamdlazi are also affected.
The municipality said coastal reservoirs that are just below 50% include Port Edward (pumping to Banners Rest), Glenmore, San Lameer and Southbroom.
Zama said these reservoirs were also depleting.
“A mobile diesel generator is stationed to ensure that Hanover pump station’s inland bulk supply feeding Florida command has minimum interruption from power outage during resupply cycle,” he said.
The municipality urged residents to use water sparingly and to suspend all filling of swimming pools, using hosepipes and other activities that use water.
“Water tanker deliveries are affected. As a result the schedules may take longer than usual,” said the municipality.