EThekwini residents should brace themselves for a restricted supply of water.
Durban — The Department of Water and Sanitation has clarified its decision to decline eThekwini Municipality’s request for water oversupply.
On Monday eThekwini management was at pains to explain to the residents and businesses that it was curtailing water supply due to the department’s refusal to extend the oversupply for another year.
The municipality was forced to acknowledge that the water challenges were due to unrepaired leaks, non-revenue water and ageing infrastructure, which the opposition said it was self-created. The municipality also attributed the problem to the rapid urbanisation.
Mayor Cyril Xaba said that the municipality tried to persuade the department to allow uMngeni-uThukela Water (UUW) to oversupply the municipality for another 12 months but the department refused. This would have given the municipality enough time to fix the problem.
In a statement issued the department stated it was incorrect that UUW was abstracting more water than its water-use licence allows. The department added that its decision was to ensure sufficient water in the system to enable UUW to continue abstracting water, including during periods of below-average rainfall.
The risk of not having the abstraction limit is that should a drought occur, there would not be sufficient water in the system for UUW to continue providing the municipality with a reliable water supply.
“However, if UUW implements the reduction as planned, the water supply should remain stable, even with below-average rainfall,” read the statement.
Furthermore, the department said in recognising the impact that restrictions was going to have on residents, it had actively engaged with all stakeholders over the past year to address their respective challenges and mitigate the need for curtailments but regrettably, despite the development and monitoring of implementation plans to reduce municipal demand, the anticipated outcome has not been realised.
DWS thus maintains its position in terms of the issued Notice of Intent to issue a Directive and subsequent correspondence to UUW, where it was communicated that no further concessions would be allowed. The department thus rejected the request to defer water supply curtailments until October 2025
It is to be emphasised that DWS’s position on this issue is based on a need to choose the option with the least risk of catastrophic consequences for the water supply to the residents of eThekwini Municipality.
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