DURBAN - THE SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says it will be launching their own initiative investigation into the disruption of water supply at oThongathi, north of Durban.
It has been without running water for 28 days since the April 11 floods after there was significant damage to the waterworks in the area.
Ward councillors said that they have been pushed to their limits with trying to get water tankers and distribute water to residents and have no time frame as to when repairs at the oThongathi Water Treatment Works will be completed.
The SAHRC said that it had noted that residents of oThongathi and the surrounding areas have been without water for approximately 28 days due to extensive infrastructure damage caused to the water treatment plant.
“The SAHRC is extremely concerned with the impact of the disruption of the water supply on the local community/s, businesses, schools and other organisations/institutions and the length of time that the necessary repairs are expected to take.
“The SAHRC’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial office has therefore registered an own initiative complaint in terms of section 13 (3) (a) of the SAHRC Act, to investigate the current situation and to assess what interim measures have been implemented to alleviate the plight of all those affected.
“The commission is therefore engaging with the eThekwini Municipality and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that immediate and appropriate intervention and assistance is provided to the local community/s, businesses, schools and other organisations during this time.”
Geoff Pullan, councillor in ward 58, said: “It pains me but the eThekwini administration is really not keeping pace with the water problems in Tongaat. I recently visited the site at oThongathi Water Treatment Works and there are big pipes that have been moved due to the heavy rain and floods. However, what concerns me is that it has been four weeks since the floods and at this stage you would expect to see lots of workers fixing the infrastructure and trying to restore water and I didn’t notice any plumber or workers on site.
“I understand that pathways to the site have been washed away and need repairs for workers to access the site, however, at this stage all this should have been addressed and we should see some progress.”
Pullan added that it was difficult to get water tankers to every resident.
“There are tankers that are supplying people with water, however, we simply can’t reach every resident and the problem is with the elderly how do they fetch water?
“In times like this we need the community to band together and assist the elderly with collecting water. Water is critical, I just feel disaster management teams were not properly prepared for this disaster; we are also concerned because we don’t have a time frame of when water will be restored, I heard it could be months and that is surely not acceptable.”
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala visited the oThongathi Water Treatment Works on Saturday to provide an update to residents.
“The eThekwini Municipality war room is going to attend to all of the issues. The deputy mayor has been seized with these issues on a daily basis and in a practical way. We engaged with communities. More so we have agreed to work together with them in a way that they participate in the war room that is dealing with these issues. We, unfortunately, won’t be able to provide financial grants to all those affected but we are doing our best to restore all service delivery aspects.”
Zikalala added that additional water tankers have been deployed to assist oThongathi residents.
“All of this does take time but we can at least have Jojo tanks to service community members as a temporary measure to ensure there is a supply of water. We are also doing our best to restore water to oThongathi. There are issues that need to be resolved – the first thing is access to oThongathi Water Treatment Works.”
He said the access road repairs are being facilitated by Tongaat Hulett and this would take up to 30 days.
He added that the other problem was the damage to the main reservoir and other smaller reservoirs in oThongathi.
“All of this will take time to repair as we can’t fill the reservoir without the necessary repairs, we are doing out utmost as government with the eThekwini Municipality to ensure water is restored.”
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