DURBAN - Ugu District Municipality said uMzimkulu River continued to flood which caused further delay in the water rationing plan and recovery.
The municipality was providing a water status update on the Boboyi system on Sunday night.
The municipality said Marbug Booster Pumps could not be started on Saturday night, as it became too risky and it was only started at midday on Sunday.
The team began manually filling the reservoir.
“The pump is still running and the Marburg Reservoir is gradually filling,” the municipality said.
It said the outlets will be opened when the reservoir gets to 75%, which based on the data was expected on Sunday night.
“Standby team is working around the clock monitoring the situation,” the municipality said.
“This is an unavoidable situation for a bulk Water Treatment Works Plant situated at the discharge point of the main flooded river into the sea.”
This is how residents responded to the municipality’s update:
Laurence Erasmus: “There are modern infrastructure solutions to these problems! Why have none been implemented? For how many more years will Ugu make these excuses! It is high time that ratepayers take legal control of all water infrastructure because Ugu is not capable.”
Maryann Walters: “Manually filling the reservoir, what with buckets, that’s why areas have no water, not good enough.”
Mandla Khowa: “Why rely on small running rivers instead of building dams??? Rivers are there, but dams dololo.”
On Saturday night, the municipality issued an urgent notice to residents on more water woes.
The municipality said highly turbid waters down from the Berg were disrupting Boboyi Plant Production.
The uMzimkulu River was currently on high flow with extremely turbid waters from the rainy Berg, which was causing a reduced flow of water into the plant from the dam.
“In the quest to avoid the collapse of the system, water rationing will be applied with immediate effect,” the municipality said.
The municipality has implemented a water rationing plan with immediate effect.
This is the municipality’s water rationing plan:
- Gamalakhe water supply will be closed off on Sunday morning until the afternoon. This will be done to reduce demand on the system while the Southern Reservoir, particularly Ramsgate is filled to continue with restoration.
- Marburg Boosters have been started in order for Marburg to be fully restored on Sunday morning.
- The northern system will continue with feed, however, the rationing of uMzimkhulu Reservoir may cause minimal fluctuations.
- The Uvongo inlet will also be shut to reduce the demand during the period.
Daily News