Durban — With the constant struggle of water shortages in Phoenix, the Aleemia Masjid mosque has provided temporary relief to the residents by allowing them to collect water from its borehole.
The Phoenix community, north of Durban has been experiencing water shortages since the floods in April last year. They have also been affected by the City’s water rationing where taps are switched off every evening, sometimes for the whole day or a number of days.
This has left many people distressed, questioning why the eThekwini Municipality has not deployed water trucks in the area as the shortage has become a daily occurrence.
On Thursday, eThekwini municipality Water and Sanitation unit (EWS) head Khumbulani Khumalo informed the residents that all reservoirs were open, adding that residents in the lower zones would be the first to access water as the system works backward.
Khumalo said residents that access water from reservoir two could experience a delay due to a minor leak identified where the pipe was welded. He said the EWS team was dealing with the issue as a matter of urgency.
“The reservoir is currently shut again until that is sorted out. Our teams will work around the clock to ensure that water supply is restored,” said Khumalo.
Meanwhile, some residents expressed their distrust and said they would prefer their own dedicated team from the area with expertise, state-of-the-art machinery and equipment to manage the repairs. Others claimed that municipal workers were causing damage to the pipes to extend their working hours and overtime.
Aleemia Masjid mosque’s Tariq Mohamed said with the neighbouring communities in dire need of water during the repairs that are being done in Phoenix they took it upon themselves to announce the availability of borehole water to help.
Mohamed said the water struggle has caused suffering to everyone, from children to the elderly.
“People are unable to use the bathrooms and toilets. Some have to come from work to cook but how can they do that if they are exhausted and have to start by thinking about where they can collect water first before cooking?
“We have opened our doors to everyone regardless of race, colour and religion because we understand that water is a necessity,” said Mohamed.
He said they advised people to boil the water before usage.
“The permanent solution should come with the municipality; it is their duty to provide water as a necessity. If they cannot, as it shows, then that should be questionable,” Mohamed said.
The eThekwini Municipality said it was aware of water outages that took place on Wednesday due to repair work on a trunk line supplying the Phoenix and Verulam reservoirs. It said the city was undertaking maintenance work on this pipeline scour as it was corroded and leaking severely, resulting in water outages in high-level areas.
“The duration of the shutdown to undertake repairs was 18 hours. This was to allow for complete drainage of the pipeline as there was welding work involved since it is a steel pipeline.
It said that it undertakes to provide water tankers where possible, though it did not have enough to cover all areas in the municipality. It further urged people to report deliberate damage to pipes to the City Investigations and Integrity unit.
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