Crack the whip! This was the directive by eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba towards the eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit (EWS) to address water challenges.
Head of the EWS, Ednick Msweli, and consultants presented their challenges to the Executive Committee (Exco) on Friday.
Sprawling informal settlements and a lack of infrastructure upgrades to keep up with a growing population in the municipality are some of the issues.
Xaba said that in the last three months, the municipality has seen an unprecedented rate of water supply interruptions or outages. He described it as being worse than in the period of load shedding.
“Back then, we made people understand that when we did not have electricity, the pumps were not operational to pump sufficient water to reservoirs. Load shedding is behind us. We obviously should not be experiencing water problems, especially in the areas where they appeared stable in the past.
“People will call you the first day and you think the matter will be resolved, but it continues to the fourth day. Even worse when they report 14 and 15 days without a drop of water," Xaba said.
Addressing senior members of the EWS, Xaba said that if the city picks up a failure in the system, there is a duty to supply the residents with water from tankers.
“This time around, they will tell you that they do not even get water tankers yet the officials know there is no water on the ground. In December, we reviewed the water curtailment and decided that the situation had improved. We thought the situation will improve but it got worse. A clear sign that it could not have been a water curtailment problem,” he said.
Xaba commended the city manager Musa Mbhele and Msweli for going to affected areas and getting feedback from the ground.
“If we are a responsive government, we mean exactly that. When people call us, we must respond to them. We exist to service those people. Not to create our own jobs. Not find comfort in our jobs. We are appointed to better their lives. We even say that we are a caring municipality,” Xaba said.
Mbhele said the water issue has given officials sleepless nights and that the city has identified challenges. He added that the city should be doing everything to solve the problems, considering that it had 128 engineers.
“A few years ago, we had 128 informal settlements. Now we have 600. Probably the highest in the country.They are dependent on the government to provide them with water. We have an estimated population of 4.2 million. An approximate increase by 1.2 million from several years ago. Has the infrastructure development coping with population growth? I cannot think of any metro able to keep up.”
Mbhele said some people were also building houses on servitudes. He said the city has challenges of wastage, theft, vandalism and an apathy towards paying for water.
“There is a lack of payment for services as if it is their right to get free water. On a site visit to an informal settlement, people interviewed said they were connecting to the municipal line because they were poor. They also pointed out that those from the formal houses are also connecting to the municipal line illegally. More people get access to this water without having to pay and this is normal according to them,“ Mbhele said.
Addressing the officials from the water department, Mbhele asked: “What is the solution? Is the situation going to remain like this? We need to think out of the box.”
Msweli said his department ran out of maintenance budget. The EWS required a budget of R670 million instead of the current R256 million they received. Msweli said there was a sharp increase in demand, but they are not seeing an increase in sales.
“We have an accurate account of what we buy. What is happening with our sales?“
The city announced on Friday that they were working on 4,000 reported leaks in the system. The EWS has urged developers to seek alternative sources of supplies or to halt expansion in specific locations. The EWS requested more funding to address the daily pipe failures, repair pipes, and expedite bulk supply initiatives like desalination and water reuse.