A towering water problem for Malaba Hills residents

GETTING water from their taps is akin to the roll of a dice, so say residents of Malaba Hills, Isipingo, who have been plagued with ongoing outages for a lengthy period.

Their luck ran dry last Friday when they were without water for four consecutive days.

Normal service resumed late on Monday but has since reverted to its default setting of unannounced outages for periods of time, much to the frustration of the residents.

Residents were without water for much of yesterday (Friday).

A water tower near Chotoo Place and the ‘Zwelithini’ informal settlement services the affected homes, with the bulk of them classified as Ward 90 residents and a handful from Ward 76.

It is believed that Illegal electrical connections to the water tower have caused it to malfunction; it’s no longer able to receive and distribute water automatically and has not been repaired.

For residents to receive water from this source, a municipal official from the water department needs to operate its receiving and distribution functions manually.

Residents complained that their lives are now at the mercy of the said municipality for months; if the officials were not dutiful in pitching at the water tower, their taps would run dry.

“You never know what to expect when you get home from work or when you wake in the morning.

“It has been very frustrating for residents.

“Hardest hit are the elderly, especially those with health challenges,” said Ashita Maharaj, head of the Malaba Hills community group.

Maharaj said they had had erratic water supply previously but the situation “got out of hand” since September 24.

“That’s when outages lasted for more than a few hours, in spite of us reporting it via the various municipal channels.”

Maharaj said they learnt from Ward 90 Councillor Shan Nobuth that the tower had been tampered with and the system could no longer work manually, and constantly required a technician to “switch it on and off” to receive and distribute water.

“We asked what the way forward would be and were told that technicians were threatened and reluctant to remove the illegal connections because it would mean no electricity for those in the settlement.”

Maharaj said, as a result, technicians preferred to come on site at random times and they did so in the presence of members from the SAPS.

She said residents were desperate for a solution.

“We have water for a few hours, outages happen, we inform the municipality…then we wait. The supply is restored and it goes out once the tower is empty. Then we have to restart the whole process of reporting it to the authorities.

“It’s a vicious cycle that we go through almost everyday.”

On last week’s outage, Maharaj said the municipality emailed saying there were no Saps members to accompany technicians to the site, in response, residents offered to make available private security officers but they received no response from eThekwini.

Maharaj said they have met both councillors (Nobuth and Jabulani Maphamulo-Ward 76) and another meeting was scheduled for today (Saturday) to decide a way forward.

Pranitha Singh, a Ward 90 resident, said they have lodged numerous complaints about their water situation. Adding to their angst, at times, was the “unprofessional” conduct of municipal call-centre operators who record and direct complaints.

Singh, a deputy principal, asked: “Why should we be negotiating for a service we diligently pay for each month for many years, yet the informal settlement never has challenges with water or electricity outages?

“Also, the water tower at Lotus Park is fenced and has armed guards, why not ours?

She noticed that sometimes the supply was restored at odd hours which made collecting and storing water difficult.

Maharaj said some residents were considering protest action as means to achieve a resolution they desired.

Maphamulo said he would be attending today’s meeting to “find a way forward”.

He confirmed that “tampering” at the water tower facility was the issue.

“I suggested to the municipality that they secure the tower.”

Maphamulo said he was in a meeting last week where further talks about electrifying the informal settlement were held.

“We are in the process of getting electricity for the settlement as a way to minimise the illegal connections problem,” he said.

Nobuth could not be reached for comment and the municipality did not respond.