Phoenix will have water again on Thursday, vows Mchunu
Phoenix residents
will have running water in their taps again on Thursday.
That's the word from the Water and Sanitation Minister who believes eThekwini will make its deadline of restoring supply this week.
Senzo Mchunu was in the northern Durban area on Sunday to meet with residents who are at the end of their rope over the supply outages.
He assured the residents during a meeting over the ongoing water crisis at a community hall meeting.
The community recently took to the streets to protest -- demanding answers and urgent intervention.
Minister Mchunu spoke to Newswatch after the meeting at Shastri Park, saying he's being kept abreast of the repairs to the Northern Aqueduct.
"Technicians and engineers of eThekwini Municipality and Umgeni-Uthukela are working day and night, the mayor is supervising them and I get all the information.
"Daily I check what's happening and I believe we are on course to meet the deadline, and of course, the community will be reported on the day or the day after."
Mchunu said leaks are a main contributing factor to the crisis.
He has instructed the city's Water Department to maintain infrastructure adequately.
"Water infrastructure is man-made it's not caused by natural disaster, it's caused by us, the way we manage those plants and other related infrastructure. If we are relaxed and we don't monitor and don't change what needs to be changed on time you will have deteriorating infrastructure.
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"eThekwini will have to monitor and check their valves or any other aspect of water because water pipes, and plants that need operation and maintenance frequently. Once they rest, the rest and there will be a crisis."
Some Phoenix residents have complained that the water tankers being sent are insufficient. Mchunu said the municipality should stop using external suppliers to provide water tankers.
