Cable theft to blame for water outages: eThekwini Municipality
eThekwini Municipality says it's working on resolving water supply issues across the city.
While it's doing this, it's appealed for calm and patience from communities - that are having to make to do without the precious resource.
Parts of Ntuzuma and KwaMashu, north of Durban, were rocked by violent protests on Wednesday night - when an angry mob turned on a water tanker and torched a municipal bus.
Taps in those areas ran dry five days ago.
eThekwini's Msawakhe Mayisela says cable theft is to blame.
"Some criminals are busy stealing our power cables. For us to be able to pump water, we rely substantially on power. If we do not have power, it becomes an uphill battle for us to pump water to our reservoir," he says.
READ: Outraged Ntuzuma residents protest over water outages
Jabu Ndlela, who lives in Ntuzuma's J-section, says it's become unbearable.
"We can't even function now. Our houses are smelly. We are using water to flush we can flush our toilets. Sometimes you need the toilets, and you can't go because there's no water to flush," she says.
The municipality says water tankers are being sent to all the affected communities today.
Meanwhile two suspected members of a syndicate that's been targeting the city's cables - have been arrested.
