eThekwini reveals water distribution loss of nearly 60%, 'fix the problem', demand angered residents

RESIDENTS have accused the eThekwini Municipality of allowing their money to literally go down the drain with "blatant disregard", given the fact that the city's water distribution loss stood at 57.81%.

As a result, having water on tap, daily, is like a roll of the dice for many communities in the municipality's area of jurisdiction because they have grown accustomed to constant outages that run for days and weeks in some instances.

While there seem no end in sight to eThekwini's water woes, still, ratepayers must brace themselves for possible tariff increases for water and other utilities that the city supplies to residents, in the coming weeks.

During an eThekwini Finance Committee meeting in April 2025, the municipality stated in a report that the water loss (57.81%) was above the norm which of 15 to 30%.

As it has done in the past, the municipality continued to blame illegal water connections, ageing infrastructure and damage to infrastructure due to the floods, as the breaches in their system.

On Thursday, the Reservoir Hills Ratepayers Association (RHRA) demanded immediate action and responses concerning the ongoing and unresolved water supply failures that have affected large parts of Clare Estate and Reservoir Hills. 

This included an outage on May 5, which left surrounding communities without water for extended periods. Yogesh Naidoo, Director of RHRA stated that the failures were not isolated or unforeseen.

Naidoo said that between January 9 and 29, the RHRA issued multiple urgent notices to the municipality detailing:

•Over 60 burst pipes reported within days

•Repeated supply disruptions, some exceeding 10 days

•Failed or substandard repairs leading to immediate re-bursts

•Lack of skilled personnel, Pressure Relief Valve (PRV) regulations, and basic resources (e.g. backfill and asphalt)

•Nightly cut-offs allegedly linked to the Sherwood 3 Reservoir without public explanation

•Total breakdown of the municipality’s complaint logging and response systems (call-centre, WhatsApp app).

“From January, the Water and Sanitation Department has repeatedly ignored or inadequately responded to warnings by the ratepayers and Ward 23 Councillor Alicia Kissoon,” he said.

Naidoo said that despite the documented failures, including requests to inspect PRVs and commission un-utilised infrastructure built at public expense, no substantive response or action plan was received by RHRA.

Naidoo said that the RHRA demanded a comprehensive report outlining:

• The specific cause of the May 5 outage
• The current operational status of Sherwood 3 Reservoir and Wiggins Waterworks
• Details of any planned repairs, scheduled upgrades, or supply interruptions
• The name and contact details of the senior official responsible for the infrastructure
• A detailed log of all reported pipe bursts and unresolved complaints in Ward 23 from January 1 to date, including steps taken.

Meanwhile, concerned resident Musaddiq Ebrahim said that the Bonela and Chesterville community had experienced water outages, with no supply at all on some days. Ebrahim said the community was at breaking point, which led to residents of Chesterville, who were also connected to the same reservoir, resorting to blocking the N2 freeway on multiple occasions, out of frustration.

“All their energy went into a death by PowerPoint turnaround strategy and nothing has been done to stop the bleeding network. Meanwhile, reservoirs run dry while the arterial network pumps fresh water into the ground. It’s insulting. It’s irresponsible and it’s officially delinquent behaviour without consequence,” Cortes said.

“The people of this metro are very close to calling this relationship quits. With the impending threatened tariff increases in a climate plagued by a chronic affordability crisis, more and more people are going to simply stop paying in this city. They have chosen this behaviour and need to live with the consequences of a ratepaying base that completely turns their backs on them. It’s one thing to finally acknowledge that we are in crisis. It’s quite another to blatantly disregard that crisis and continue throwing our money down the drain,” Cortes stated.

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za

DAILY NEWS