Taps are shut down for 12 hours a day as drought hits the iLembe District Municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast.
|||Durban - Water is being rationed to all residents of the iLembe District Municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, with taps now being shut off for 12 hours a day.
This was announced on Tuesday by iLembe mayor Welcome Mdabe.
“This period calls for a change in lifestyle and we urge all residents to continue to use water sparingly,” he said.
Water would now be available between 4am and 10am and 4pm and 10pm.
“To ensure we lengthen the availability of water, Umgeni Water has allocated Ilembe District Municipality with 50% allocation of our normal consumption.
“If we finish this allocation in two weeks, this means that the rest of the two weeks of that month we have to rely on supplying water with tankers.”
The level of the Hazelmere Dam, which supplies the iLembe and eThekwini municipalities, stands at 43%.
Umvoti Waterworks had also reduced the amount of water it was supplying.
“Before the drought, Umvoti Waterworks produced 18 million litres. We have been constantly monitoring since the drought began and we have seen it go from 18 to 15 to 12 and now 8 million litres today,” Mdabe said.
“Under normal circumstances we bill R15 million for prepaid and conventional meters and collect about R12m,” he said.
“Since the drought started, two years ago, we bill for R6m and only collect about R3.5m,” Mdabe said.
He said leaks, partly because of ageing infrastructure and vandalism, were affecting supplies.
“We are currently installing pressure valves to address this challenge,” he said.
Daily News