Prolonged Tongaat water repairs infuriate residents

Operations have been suspended at the Tongaat South Reservoir and Tongaat South Elevated Tower.

A team was on-site on Tuesday to repair leaks at the bulk pumping main. 

Repairs were scheduled to be completed on Monday, but a TLB that arrived late delayed the work, with the leak only being fixed last night.

eThekwini says another leak has since appeared and is being attended to.

For Sandra Govender from Chelmsford Heights, it's a never-ending cycle.

READ: Durban residents warned of 18-hour water shutdown

"The only feedback we get is, there's a bust pipe, and if you find a bust pipe at 08:h00 in the morning, guys on-sight will only be repairing it at 00:00 at night.

"Once they repair it, it goes on to the next day where there is another burst pipe, and then it’s the next day where the reservoir then needs to now full up. So whenever there is a burst pipe, we have no water for the next four days, and it's always the case. It happens every single week."

Ricardo Andrew from Buffelsdale Community Forum says even the availability of water tankers is erratic.

"Even when they do send water tankers, it comes in so late that by the time they get to the tankers, there is no water, or the tankers now have to service a larger area, and they were not waiting long enough."

"You know, the saddest thing is that there are rates that we're paying and the tariffs that we pay, the maintenance and the infrastructure in the Tongaat area is really bad.”