Durban residents furious about water outage

Durban residents are furious about a water outage that has affected large parts of the city related to an eThekwini municipality labour dispute that has disrupted services.

This comes as residents in several areas are also faced with a power outage, which the municipality said its technicians were working to restore.

On Sunday night, the municipality issued a statement informing residents of the disruption of water and sanitation services “because of an ongoing labour issue.

“The municipality is dealing with the issue and hopes to have it resolved as soon as possible,” the statement said. It is understood the labour issue relates to overtime pay.

Sakhile Mngadi, ward councillor for the Durban suburbs of Glenwood, Umbilo and Bulwer, said on Monday the areas had been without water for 41 hours.

“On the weekend, we were told no staff were working because they had been refused overtime pay.” Mngadi said.

Parts of Phoenix, north of Durban, have also been hit by the water outage.

A resident who did not want to named said many people were fuming.

“Dry taps coupled with loadshedding made it a very frustrating 24 hours for us in Eastbury. The water went off at around 8am yesterday and only came back last night. The supply stopped again this morning.

“We are angry that this is a result of a strike. Water cuts are frequent in our area due to the lack of maintenance of the infrastructure and now we hear that it is because of striking workers. There must be another way to find a solution.”