Calls for eThekwini municipality to address its water infrastructure failures and illegal connections have resurfaced as the city is facing a year-long reduction of water supply from the uMngeni-Uthukela Water catchment system.
This comes after the department of water and sanitation (DWS) found that the metro has exceeded its abstraction licences from the uMngeni-Uthukela Water catchment system by more than 8% and was given a directive to gradually reduce consumption over the next 12 months.
Mayor Cyril Xaba made the announcement during a council meeting on Tuesday.
“The average abstraction amount from the system over the past 12 months amounts to 1,406.4 megalitres per day (ML/d). This value will have to be reduced to 1,287.7Ml/d which is a reduction of 118 Ml/d in order for uMngeni-Uthukela Water Board to meet the conditions of the Water Use Licence of 470 million m3/annum,” he said.
The water curtailment will start from October 10.
This catchment system consists of the five inland dams which connect with Durban through the Western Aqueduct.
The city has implemented various interventions to ensure minimal disruption to residents, including:
- installation of restrictors in water metres to all consumers;
- pressure reduction in the reticulation network;
- metering all unmetered consumers;
- improving turnaround time in repairing leaks and pipe bursts through deployment of ward-based plumbers;
- community education in water conservation;
- disconnection of illegal connections;
- water rationing where demand is too high or exceeds available supply.
“We want to indicate we did everything in our power to avert this situation by writing to the department requesting the postponement of the curtailment while we implement measures to save water, including non-revenue water. However, we are at the stage where the ultimate goal is to avert a situation where water supply gets depleted from the source,” said Xaba.
The long-standing issue of the city’s high water loss through leaks, which stands at around 55%, and the slow reaction time to reported leaks were cited as possibly the main reasons the city finds itself in this situation.
Allison Schoeman, chairperson of eThekwini United Ratepayers, Business & Civics Organisation said reducing water consumption in line with the curtailment measures was important.
However, she argued that prioritising repairs to water infrastructure was just as important.
“The ageing infrastructure and persistent leaks are contributing significantly to the alarming 55% non-revenue water loss, a figure far beyond acceptable limits. Without immediate upgrades and targeted interventions to bring this loss below 5%, it is impossible to accurately assess how much of the current water demand is attributable to consumer usage versus infrastructural failures,” she said.
She suggested the municipality ensures its existing water supply system is optimised through:
- immediate upgrades to water pipes, pumping stations, and treatment plants;
- swift resolution of the backlog of outstanding repairs and infrastructure projects;
- enhanced efforts to curb illegal connections, which further strain our water system; and
- a dedicated budget and workforce to ensure the city’s water infrastructure is brought up to standard.
“We strongly urge the city to set measurable goals for reducing non-revenue water loss, and for a reassessment of consumption trends to be conducted once the infrastructure improvements are in place,” she said.
“This will provide a clearer picture of the actual contributory factors to the high levels of consumption and ensure that the necessary curtailments and restrictions are based on an accurate understanding of the situation.”
Ish Prahladh, president of eThekwini Ratepayers and Residents Association, called for shortened reaction time and repairs to reports of burst water pipes to minimise water losses.
He also called for the monitoring of water supply to informal settlements to ensure they don’t go past the stipulated amount of free water, as well as illegal connections in formal and informal settings.
“The municipality must take note and not turn a blind eye to the amount of water wastage that is consumed by the car washes that are opening daily using illegal water and other instances where illegal water is connected.”
Yogis Govender, DA councillor and member of eThekwini executive committee, said uMngeni-Uthukela Water and the city’s water and sanitation unit were to blame for failing to address the water losses over the years.
“Both uMngeni-UThukela and eThekwini municipality must be accountable for the water woes that face residents as it is a culmination of failures, omissions, lack of preventive maintenance, lack of fore planning and the dismal track record in repairing leaks and bursts that brought the city to this point.”
Ednick Msweli, the head of eThekwini water and sanitation unit, conceded that water losses were a major setback. He said the city would target areas with the highest water losses to try to save water before trying to reduce water demand in households during this curtailment period.
However, he pointed out that the completion of water projects such as the new Western Aqueduct and the new Northern Aqueduct and ongoing repairs to the Southern Aqueduct showed that the city was “doing well” in terms of prioritising water infrastructure.
“We have done everything that the city can do to make sure that there is infrastructure to convey the water to people,” he said.
So the city on its side is doing well in terms of providing infrastructure, but the problem is ‘do you have water to put in those pipelines after having infrastructure on the ground?’”
Elaborating on the city’s interventions, Msweli said these include the implementation of a pressure management project to reduce the probability of water mains bursts.
He said the city was increasing the frequency of maintaining its 2,331 pressure-reducing valves while also installing and commissioning an additional 107 new valves.
“Pressure management is what Cape Town did, in the main, when they were dealing with their Day-Zero. They focused on reducing pressure to ensure even when you have bursts you don’t lose a lot of water.”
He said they are also replacing the old asbestos cement pipes which are prone to bursting.
He added that DSW had been vocal that water consumption in the city was much higher than what it should be, at an average of 268 litres per person per day instead of 173.
He dismissed concerns the city might be approaching a “Day Zero” situation, which is level 7 water restrictions that Cape Town feared would befall them during the water crisis between 2015 and 2020.
“We are not facing a Day-Zero situation, we are merely facing a reduction in the amount of water available to us. We have to make do with what we have, but there will still be water.”
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