Residents of Endlovini informal settlement have described the constant interruptions to their water supply as “unbearable”.
The residents claim that for nearly a month now they have not had water during the day and that the supply only resumes around 9pm.
They said no one had explained to them why they were experiencing interruptions to their water supply and that if they needed water to, for example, do their washing, they had to collect buckets of water at night and save them for the next day.
Resident Nobesuthu Mgqibelo said the water interruptions frustrated residents and that at first, she had thought they were due to maintenance work being done on the water supply systems.
“I have had it up to here with this water interruptions. I mean we can’t live like this,“ she said.
“I’m lucky that I don’t have to walk a long distance to fetch water from the communal taps but just imagine for other people who live far from the communal tap and have to fetch water at night.
“I mean they are at risk of being robbed by Amaphara phara. Others have connected water communal taps to their homes and created their own taps and do not have to carry buckets at night because the taps are right at their homes,” she said.
Another resident, Nokuthula Cwane, echoed this sentiment.
Ms Cwane said towards the end of last year she had started noticing the water supply interruptions. But then, she said, they had been without water between 9am and 4pm.
Recently, she said, she had had to help a neighbour who had forgotten to collect water the previous night and needed to take her chronic medication.
Mayoral committee member for waste and water, Xanthea Limberg, said the City’s water and sanitation department was investigating the cause of this problem, and would be able to explore solutions once it was identified.
At this point, however, she said illegal connections were suspected to be the main cause.
Asked how is the City planned to resolve this matter, she said if it turned out to be the result of illegal connections, there was little the City could do to permanently resolve the problem.
“It would require the community’s assistance in the form of reporting illegal connections that they are aware of,” she said.
