Ugu residents left dry as they suffer 'worst water crisis'

"It's absolutely shocking and the answer from the ward councillor is Ugu can not afford to assist us," said a resident 

The district has had persistent water supply problems for the past few years.

The latest outage is being blamed on sabotage.

Some residents of Margate said they haven't had water supply for the past month.

Liesel Olivier says water tanks haven't been sent and has received no assistance. 

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"I'm one of the fortunate ones that have a swimming pool at my house. I've been using the swimming pool water to flush my toilet. It's not hygienic,  we have to buy water to bath." 

"I have my 78-year-old mother that lives with me and I have another pensioner that is not well and now we have no water, and it's absolutely shocking," she said. 

Another local, Sue Nagel is pleading with authorities to urgently intervene, "I run a small business and we have to be hygienic and it's almost impossible." 

"We spend most of the day, instead of doing work, boiling water so we can clean surfaces. It's getting scary, we are just worried about the safety of the elderly in our area, and we have a lot of old age homes. It's impossible for them to stay clean." 

Cooperative Governance spokesperson, Sezo Mzila, says MEC Sipho Hlomuka is trying to get to the bottom of the problem. 

"The MEC has been convening in a number of meetings together with his candidate counterparts, addressing some of the issues that are affecting the municipality when it comes to water. We do note that there has been a number of complaints made about damage to the structure and suspected sabotage by certain individuals." 

The department is calling on anyone with information on the alleged vandalism of infrastructure to come forward. 

Newswatch has been trying to contact Ugu officials, to no avail.