KZN health department responds to water crisis at Umlazi hospital

KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Nomagugu Simelane says contingency plans are in place to ensure patient welfare and hygiene are not compromised at Umlazi's Prince Mshiyeni Hospital amid a long-term water outage.

The hospital has experienced water challenges for about four weeks, starting with “water-shedding” for two weeks before the total outage since February 3.

Concerns were raised by the community, ActionSA and trade unions Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA and the Public Servants Association.

The department met with hospital management and eThekwini municipality on Tuesday to discuss the challenges.

“The hospital is facing water challenges but they are as a result of the challenges faced by the community because the hospital’s water network is linked to that of the municipality. When the community faces water challenges, the hospital also faces them,” said Simelane.

eThekwini’s acting head of water and sanitation Msizi Shabalala said the challenges started with the implementation of water curtailments in October which affected most of the city’s reservoirs.

“As a result, it has also impacted the hospital, more especially since the hospital is in the high-level zone,” he said.

Simelane said the hospital has had to halt some planned surgeries.

“We are operating five out of seven theatres so we are at least able to do some planned operations.”

She said the city, which had been dispatching four water tankers daily to the hospital, agreed to increase this to 10 per day.

Gift of the Givers has provided the hospital with 500 five-litre buckets which they are using as drinking water.

Simelane said the department realised during the April 2022 floods that the hospital being linked to the municipality’s water network would pose challenges and started putting plans in place for that eventuality.

Among those was putting 30 static water tankers around the hospital and installing a 1,100kl reservoir, which at full capacity can provide the hospital with water for two days.

Simelane said patients who are mobile can fetch water from the tanks, but they have also made arrangements with a service provider to transport water from the tanks to clinical service points in the hospital. 

She dismissed reports of the hospital being unhygienic during this time, with rumours of dirty linen, flies and toilets not flushing.

“I would like to assure society that it is not true. We have done a walkabout through our quality assurance team throughout the hospital to ensure there is a management plan on how we are handling the situation.”

The department has also provided 30 portable toilets within the vicinity of the hospital for patients who are able to walk.

They linked the maternity ward, in particular, to water tanks to ensure patients are able to use toilets and get drinking water.

“We’re working on linking our ICU and theatres into that system so they also don’t struggle with water issues.”

Simelane said the department had commissioned four boreholes in 2024 to add to the hospital’s reservoir and static tanks.

“It’s at half-capacity. We’re opening at selected times twice a day to ensure it isn't depleted quickly. To maintain the reservoir’s full capacity at all times, we need about 25 water tankers on a daily basis. We are working on a plan to use it full-time should the need arise.”

Simelane said the boreholes will be ready to function as soon as they get water filters, which are expected to arrive on Saturday.

“We also have a plan in place with the municipality on how we will operate moving forward. We will also look at how the lack of water provision is affecting our clinics.

“The hospital was our immediate priority.”

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