A STRATEGY to prevent the interruption of water supply due to loadshedding has been developed. This will curb continuous water interruptions in the City. EThekwini Mayor Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda together with members of the Executive Committee and water engineers visited several reservoirs and water pump stations in the City on 19 March.

The delegation visited areas frequently experiencing water supply interruptions as a result of loadshedding. Most of eThekwini Municipality’s water is supplied by uMngeni Water through Inanda Dam. When loadshedding is implemented, the pumps that supply water to the City’s reservoirs get affected and takes six hours to recover from the time loadshedding is implemented. As a result, residents are left without water. “For the City to pump water to reservoirs it relies on power, and in the event of any power outage, it becomes an uphill battle to provide water normally. This is as a result of water being depleted from the reservoirs after the malfunctioning of pumps. Building capacity to reservoirs takes numerous hours.

This means, during this process, there is not a single drop of water from taps which causes frustration among residents,” said Mayor Kaunda. Following back to back planning meetings and site visits to the City’s reservoirs to assess challenges, Mayor Kaunda and the Executive Committee took the decision that the Durban Heights Treatment Works and Inanda Dam will be exempt from loadshedding. By isolating the Durban Heights Treatment Waterworks from loadshedding, water interruptions should stop as the facility supplies most areas of eThekwini. “We believe that exempting the Durban Heights Treatment Waterworks, when loadshedding is implemented, is going to be a lasting solution to this challenge. By doing this, we are guaranteed that residents will have water if loadshedding is implemented. This will now give us time to focus on fixing pump stations that are not working as expected,” said Mayor Kaunda.

Explaining the water situation in uMlazi, he said it was a “unique case”. “The issue in uMlazi is that of aging infrastructure which will cost the City R400 million to repair. We are looking at reprioritising the budget so that we can fully restore operations to the uMlazi water line before the remaining pipes, that supply