Ugu municipality blames Port Edward’s water woes on 'cross-border electricity issue'

The Ugu municipality has blamed an interprovincial electricity issue between KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape for water shortages in the south coast town of Port Edward.

Residents, many of them pensioners, say life has become untenable because of water shortages and raw sewage flowing into the town.

The Water Alliance Group Port Edward has taken up the cudgels on behalf of fed-up residents by submitting a written complaint to water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu, as well as various local government officials including the Ugu municipality mayor.

Martin van Zyl, chair of the group, described the situation as “dire”.

“We are mostly a pensioners’ town with people living below the breadline and having to go hungry because they have to buy water from private water tankers,” he said.

Van Zyl said those with health conditions are being put at further risk because they are unable to bathe properly due to the lack of water. The town is also battling with sewage overflow.

The municipality told TimesLIVE it is aware of “issues pertaining to intermittent supply in areas fed by the Umtamvuna plant. 

“To be able to pump more volume of water, we needed more electricity. The plant is located on the border line of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. For Eskom to implement that, they needed to go through the Eastern Cape.

“The community living there had their own service delivery issues with the municipality in the Eastern Cape and opposed it. There were meetings to sort the issue out. It took quite a long time for them to agree.

“The municipality, ratepayers association and Water Alliance Group agreed that there is hope for the improvement of water supply in Port Edward, after progress made with a cross-border electricity issue. All parties are expecting that by the end of September, the situation will have been resolved.

“In terms of the sewage overflow, through ongoing participation and engagement with ratepayers, there is a new line recently completed. There are trucks at Black Rock daily relieving and clearing the station, no spillage is left unattended. However, there was a stormwater drain reported by the ratepayers as blocked. This was sorted through co-operation with a company working for Sanral.”

TimesLIVE