As the water crisis deepens, the Msunduzi Municipality has appealed to Pietermaritzburg residents to conserve water in the dry winter months.
|||Durban - As the water crisis deepens, the Msunduzi Municipality has appealed to Pietermaritzburg residents to conserve water in the dry winter months.
Pietermaritzburg has received 70% less rainfall than last year, which has left most reservoirs in the city with a water level below 20%.
“Water restrictions of 15%-20% have been imposed, but water levels continue to drop in many areas leaving areas without water for a few months now,” said Msunduzis head of water and sanitation, Brendon Sivparsad.
“We are taking action by feeding the affected areas with water tanks. Areas that are most affected by a shortage of water are high-lying areas and this is purely due to how the water system works.
“Lower-lying areas would essentially receive water first due to gravity and the higher-lying areas would receive water thereafter. When water is shut off, higher-lying areas will be shut off first and lower-lying areas follow,” said Sivparsad.
“It’s getting to the point where the drought is starting to affect the economy, and education sector as schools are negatively impacted by the water cuts,” said Sivparsad.
“We appeal to consumers to partner with us and heed the call to cut down on water usage.
“We need to work together and meet halfway in order to understand the gravity of the situation,” he said.
He said the municipality was taking measures to conserve water.
These included reducing water pressure; actively detecting and repairing internal water leaks and installing restrictors in every household.
The municipality has installed more than 20 000 restriction washers into households.
“The restriction washers not only decrease water consumption, but significantly lowers your water bill by 30%,” said Sivparsad.
“The situation of crisis has arrived. The municipality is doing as much as it can to save water, but we need the assistance from the Pietermaritzburg community to do their share to save water. We need to come to the realisation that even watering our gardens at this stage is a luxury we cannot afford,” said Sivparsad.
The ANC in Pietermaritzburg was earlier this month caught up in a water-for-votes scandal.
Weekend newspapers reported that party members had been urged in a memo to cut water supply to taps and send tankers into communities, to create an image that the party was delivering services.
Party provincial spokesman, Mduduzi Ntuli, strongly denied the allegations.
“We are not under threat in those municipalities, where this memo is supposedly saying we are involved in acts of sabotage. Those are municipalities governed by the ANC.
“We have only heard of this as an allegation in the media, but we have demanded that those with this memo put it before us and we will know the signatures behind it, and those involved will be dealt with accordingly,” Ntuli said.
Daily News