The city needs to urgently respond to oThongathi’s water woes

DEAR eThekwini Municipality, Today (Tuesday, May 3) the community of oThongathi (Tongaat) has gone without water for 23 days.

You should be embarrassed at your inability to provide effective, alternative water solutions to this town during this post-storm crisis.

The city’s municipal water tankers have been an absolute failure.

There is a lot of talk about them, but there have been few in sight.

You need to be reminded that this community consists of many old, frail people and others who do not own vehicles to fetch water.

Their reality is to wait and wait and wait for the city’s water tankers to pitch up.

Sometimes that’s in vain for days on end.

Many homes are incurring huge costs trying to secure JoJo tanks and water-flow tanks to ensure a constant water supply to their friends, families and neighbours.

Mr Mayor, Mr Premier, when last did you carry a 20-litre bucket of water up four flights of stairs or down a steep embankment?

It’s not easy. In fact it’s backbreaking. After 23 days my body is tired.

Imagine my 78-year-old mother and the 80-year-old gogo down the road.

The emotional pleas on social media for water are heartbreaking. Do you not see them?

Are we a forgotten community? EMdloti has teams of people working on its water works. I saw this myself. Why not oThongathi?

Two weeks ago, I saw workers washing the streets of uMhlanga with water from a fire hydrant.

What an insult to all the communities who have no water.

To date the streets of oThongathi are still strewn with debris, a constant reminder of the dreaded floods.

Clearly, this town is not a priority. What work has been done to date to try to find an alternative to get piped water into the town?

Had it not been for the generosity of NGOs, religious organisations and the spirit of community, many homes would not have had a drop of water during this time.

How much longer are you going to rely on the likes of the Gift of the Givers to bail you out?

The city, the ANC, our so-called leaders in government, you have failed us miserably.

A national state of disaster was declared after the floods, but your inaction actually makes this term laughable.

The city’s ineffective disaster management plan has been under scrutiny for years. Yet, there is no sense of urgency to find solutions and put in place measures enabling swift, effective responses to such disasters. I live on Tesco Drive, in Potgieters Hill.

Since April 12, I have seen a tanker twice on my road.

On other occasions it just drives by, oblivious to the many residents screaming for it to stop so they can get their fill of water.

In case you have forgotten, water is a basic human right.

Water is life. Should you not be calling town hall meetings to advise residents what the actual time frames are before the oThongathi water works is up and running?

I want to hear the reality from you … not third hand on social media or community WhatsApp chats.

Your silence is deafening … sickening. What happened to the school kids and businesses in this area?

Do they sit at home and pray for a speedy solution to this crisis?

While you take your time in finding a solution, thieving opportunists are selling municipal water to desperate residents who do not have the means to fetch their own.

Other residents are throwing punches in snaking queues, while waiting for water.