The uMhlanga Ratepayers and Residents Association says it is exploring its “legal options” against the eThekwini Municipality because of unreliable water supply to the area.
This after parts of La Lucia, uMhlanga Ridge and Glenashley experienced water supply problems for several days prior to the scheduled shutdown on Tuesday, said the organisation.
Chairperson of the association Terri MacLarty said residents were frustrated by the lack of a solution which has left them contemplating legal action.
The interruptions, it seemed, were affecting some areas and not entire suburbs, based on the reservoir supplying each place.
MacLarty said the reservoir that supplies her area was affected, and other reservoirs in uMhlanga north and uMhlanga south.
If the ratepayers go ahead with this action, it will be the second time this year that eThekwini faces irate ratepayers in court.
A few months ago, the Westville Ratepayers Association took the municipality to court, complaining about excessive tariffs and poor service delivery. They withheld rates and the municipality in turn cut services to some of the residents.
However, the municipality won the case after the residents tried to force it to reconnect those whose services had been disconnected.
MacLarty told The Mercury on Tuesday that while no final decision had been taken, “we are going to find legal ways to force the eThekwini Municipality to do their jobs. We really are, because we are fed up, we pay a lot of money for rates.
“We know that it is illegal to withhold rates, but we are exploring legal ways to force eThekwini to do their jobs. It has been two months now and we are still faced with water problems and the municipality is failing to give us an explanation as to what is going on,” she said.
She said after failing to get answers from the water unit about the source of the problem, “we have escalated the matter above the water department.
It’s quite clear that eThekwini cannot handle the water situation.”
The chairperson said the ongoing crisis was a serious threat to the tourism industry: “This area attracts tourists, but many visitors ask about the water situation and some are cancelling their bookings, this is a serious problem.”
Duncan Heafield, chairperson of uMhlanga Tourism Association, said: “The water crisis that is affecting the north region is creating havoc with potential tourists wanting to visit uMhlanga. Visitors want to be assured of a stable and potable supply of water and sanitation.
“The lack of water poses the threat of many of our hospitality members losing vast amounts of revenue from the continued water rationing and repairs.
“At the moment the worst hit are the guest houses and bed and breakfasts that rely on accommodation bookings and don’t have the spare capacity of water etc,” he said.
DA councillor in uMhlanga, Nicole Bollman, said the last major outage she was aware of was in August, and since then the only issue had been that of the Virginia reservoir running low – but she said that affected Durban North more than ward 35.
But another DA councillor, Shontel de Boer, in the Durban North area, said residents were concerned. She said part of her area was without water until Friday.
“They are very concerned about what’s happening now and going forward. The residents are fed up. It’s been intermittent supply. It goes out every weekend,” she said on Tuesday.
A business owner in the accommodation sector, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, said the challenge of having no water was enormous.
“We are forced to buy fresh water from bulk suppliers in 25-litre containers. One for each room in our guest house. We have overseas guests who can’t believe this is happening. The reason for all of this is that the repairs and maintenance of our infrastructure is not being attended to timeously.”
Asked about the intermittent supply disruptions in areas north of Durban, eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said: “The issue was caused by a power failure which affected the Durban Heights Treatment Works.
This resulted in reduced volumes to the northern aqueduct.”
She said a total shutdown was undertaken on Tuesday for repair work to be done at Durban Heights Treatment Works and upon completion this would ensure sufficient volumes.
“It will take approximately seven days after this shutdown for the system to fully recover. The area has a supply, albeit it intermittent,” said the municipal spokesperson .
She did not respond about whether the City was aware of the threat of legal action.
The Mercury