Durban — Reservoir Hills residents woke up to dry taps on Tuesday and are blaming incompetent plumbers for the inconvenience.
A burst pipe on Varsity Drive caused the problem on Monday. However one of the residents, Ameeta Singh, said she had been without a water supply for three days and was furious with contracted plumbers for doing poor work.
“This is unacceptable, cruel and inhumane. We are playing the waiting game, waiting for plumbers, waiting for a Tractor, Loader, Backhoe, waiting for a backfill, waiting for a Pressure Regulating Valve, waiting for water for three tortuous days,” Singh said.
She said plumbers were supposed to be at Kies Avenue at 7am as they were assigned the 10pm shift. But they closed the site, disappeared and no one knew if they had been paid for the 10pm to 6am shift.
“Communication should be given with clear names and contact numbers of the crew so we could follow through,” said Singh.
Singh asked for accountability for the plumbers and for forensic auditing into how plumbers were called. She also said the supervisor on duty should make sure that before each shift ended, every resident should have water.
eThekwini Municipal ward 23 Councillor Alicia Kissoon highlighted the difficulties residents have faced recently.
Kissoon said almost half of Reservoir Hills had been without water for five days, with little or no feedback from the department. She said phone calls had gone unanswered and there was a shortage of water tankers, with some areas going without a tanker for four days.
“The residents from Umgudulu settlement were to blockade the M19 yesterday (Monday) when the department materialised a truck to arrive in 20 minutes despite not having trucks previously. It is still not enough,” said Kissoon.
Kissoon said on Tuesday, many roads still did not have water supply, apparently due to the plumbers not opening a valve.
She said she was unable to verify this because she had left the plumbers on site at 9pm and it would be near impossible to get an answer from the department.
Kissoon said this has affected all groups of residents, from businesses to students and ratepayers.
“It cannot be accepted that residents have to beg your departments for answers and their elected representative is left without answers despite hundreds of attempts to engage with the department,” said Kissoon.
She said the Auditor-General’s office was correct in its findings that the eThekwini Municipality water and sanitation system seemed to be on a downward spiral, adding that this was currently being clearly demonstrated.
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