Durban: The ongoing water supply disruptions in eThekwini Municipality, which has seen ratepayers raise their frustrations in protests, led to an urgent meeting being called on Sunday by Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pemmy Majodina, and Deputy Minister David Mahlobo with representatives from eThekwini and uMngeni-uThukela Water (UUW).
For eThekwini, the mayor Cyril Xaba and Trading Services committee chairperson Mdu Nkosi were present, while uMngeni-uThukela Water was represented by chairperson Advocate Vusi Khuzwayo. Management officials from the national department, municipality, and the water board were also present.
In a joint statement, the City and water board said the root cause of the water supply disruptions is that the demand for treated water in eThekwini is exceeding the available supply. They said the growing demand was due to population growth and partly due to leaks in the municipality’s water distribution systems.
“This results in a situation where the City’s reservoirs become depleted because water is being drawn out of them faster than the reservoirs can be filled. This particularly affects water supply to high-lying areas and areas far from the reservoirs, because the water levels in the reservoirs drop to a level where they are insufficient to provide the pressure required to get water to the high-lying and far-away areas. This has been the main cause of water supply disruptions in Chatsworth, uMlazi, and surrounding areas in the South, as well as Verulam, Tongaat, and Ntuzuma in the North.”
UUW also had to shut down one of its pipelines last month to allow for the South African National Roads Agency to upgrade the N3 highway. The pipeline is expected to come back into operation this week.
Regarding the water curtailment for eThekwini, a decision was taken by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to temporarily lift the curtailment, with effect from Sunday until April 23. Last October, the water curtailment was introduced in terms of which the volume of water supplied to Durban residents was reduced.
The curtailment is being implemented at the directive of the DWS, which issued a notice to UUW to reduce the volume of water abstracted from the uMngeni system to their licensed volumes.
UUW had been exceeding the abstraction limit imposed by DWS, and consequently, the Department instructed UUW to curtail its abstraction in October 2024.
During the December holidays, when demand for water peaked in eThekwini, DWS temporarily lifted this curtailment directive, but it was reinstated again in mid-January 2025.
The City and UUW said various projects are underway to augment the amount of water in the system, including infrastructure upgrades.
To deal with leaks, the City is in the procurement stage of a public-private partnership to mobilise private sector funding and expertise to reduce non-revenue water.
The City is also installing water restrictors or pressure management valves to reduce the water pressure in the water distribution system, which reduces the frequency of pipe bursts and extends the useful life of the infrastructure.
The following was agreed at the meeting:
- The City Council will consider implementing formal water-use restrictions through by-laws.
- Given the recent rainfall and improvement in dam levels in the uMWS, DWS will again temporarily lift the curtailment, with effect from today, until 23 April 2025.
- Weekly technical coordination meetings between the City, UUW and DWS will continue and there will be weekly meetings between the mayor, the minister and the chairperson of UUW to review progress.
- This work will be coordinated with the fortnightly meetings of the water and sanitation work stream meetings of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group.
- The City and UUW will improve their communications regarding water supply disruptions to residents, including the causes of the disruptions and what is being done about them.
Residents were urged to use water sparingly to reduce the average consumption of water per capita per day. The 2023 DWS No Drop audit (which was released by DWS in December 2023) found this to be 298 liters/capita/day, compared to the international average of 173 l/c/d.