Umhlanga residents threatening rates boycott over water outages

Frustrated Durban North and Umhlanga resident are threatening a rates boycott due to ongoing water outages.

This comes after residents have been without water for over four days, leaving them with no choice but to rely on buying water and rotational water tankers.

The Umhlanga Ratepayers and Residents Association (Urra) told TimesLIVE residents are fuming over the outages.

Last month, residents were without water for more than eight days, resulting in huge financial losses for businesses and affecting the tourism industry during the long weekend.

Urra chairperson Terry MacLarty said the water was switched off on Wednesday at midnight and they were told it would be restored the following day.

She said this was because the municipality was fixing the uMngeni-Uthukela Water Line, which was washed away by floods.

“Today it’s Sunday, and the water hasn’t been restored. This is just ridiculous and too much to handle for us as residents. We understand that the city has to fix the pay plan, but I don’t know if they have skilled and qualified people because it was not supposed to take that long. Residents are now forced to buy water or collect it from water tankers, which are very scarce.

“My people are mad, and they now want to withhold their rates [payments] until the city gets their things in order. I have been telling them that withholding rates is going to affect the city badly, and that’s not what we want. This is sad because the city does half the job all the time,” said MacLarty.

MacLarty said what frustrates residents the most is that they pay their rates on time but there are always delays in getting things done.

She said she had advised association members withholding rate payments was illegal. She was concerned about residents, falling behind on payments and having arrears.

She said she had previously met with city mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, the water and sanitation department and other city agencies to come up with a plan for this.

“I think I’ll have to try to set up another meeting on this because we have asked for feedback but are not happy. I want a proper plan on how they are fixing the water issue in Umhlanga and northern suburbs. We also need a proper plan for how they are addressing the water infrastructure because it is totally outdated. Once we see the plan, we will be able to hold them accountable,” she said.

Meanwhile, eThekwini municipality said engineers were confident that Reservoir 3 would started filling up, enabling residents to start receiving water on Sunday.

“It is expected that some reservoirs will have recovered around midnight tonight, while others should recover tomorrow (Sunday). The system recovery is being monitored by teams on the ground. The water shortage experienced in some areas was because the water level recovery took longer than anticipated due to low flows from the Durban Heights Treatment Works after the completion of its planned maintenance shutdown on Wednesday,” it said.

It said the shutdown was necessary to allow for the completion of repair work on Nagle Aqueduct-2, which was washed away during the flood disaster in April 2022.

The city said ultimately, the ongoing infrastructure maintenance upgrades would result in a more secure supply of water in the future.

As an interim measure, it said, residents will be supplied with water tankers during this process.

TimesLIVE