Services at a standstill as residents close schools over lack of water

RESIDENTS of a Ladysmith township have brought social development and education services to a standstill in a protest over the provision of water.

Pupils in Ekuvukeni have not attended school since January 28, while SASSA offices were burnt down late last month, with residents threatening to do the same to schools if they remained open.

The residents have protested since January against the lack of water in the area, and demanded urgent intervention by the uThukela District Municipality, which is responsible for the supply.

“We have been without running water for a number of years now. Different reasons are given for this and while waiting for the uThukela District Municipality to fix the problems, water gets delivered by water tankers on different days in different sections of Ekuvukeni,” said a resident who would not be named.

Another, who also asked not to be named, said it was not their intention to burn the SASSA offices.

“That was the only way to get their (politicians’) attention. We have been living with water outages for many years, and the municipality (uThukela District) has been acknowledging the problem, but ran short of solutions. Officials were warned that things would get ugly if this was not attended to,” said the resident.

Area councillor Mzamo Mbatha said the dam’s capacity needed to be increased.

“We have had drought and then heavy rains. The Olifantskop Dam, our supplier, carried more mud than water and this did not help the situation. The closing down of schools and social development offices is testimony to how dire the situation is. At some stage, residents also closed down the clinic and the magistrate’s court, but those have since been reopened,” Mbatha said.

The district municipality said the water supply in the area was under “severe” pressure.

Spokesperson Jabulani Mkhonza said about 15 000 households were currently supplied from the Ekuvukeni Water Supply Scheme.

“Despite the supply being under pressure, the community demands to receive water on a 24-hourly basis. They also complain about water being contaminated with sewerage,” Mkhonza said.

A new water tanker roster was developed in line with the current drought situation, he said.