Aging water and electricity infrastructure collapsing in the northern areas
Residents in the northern areas say their lives have been negatively affected by the increasing problems of burst water pipes and damaged electricity cables which occur on a daily basis.
A resident said that in the space of two days, four water pipes in the area had to be repaired. Last week, a high school in the area had to send their pupils home early as there was no water supply due to a burst pipe.
Residents are irate at the number of days they have had electricity and water outages. At times they are unaware of the cause of the outages or why there are delays in the repairs being carried out.
One of the common reasons is that the infrastructure is aging and has not been maintained.
There is also the issue of the faults being sited on residents’ properties, resulting in their driveways or yards having to be excavated to gain access for the faults to be repaired.
A Larkspur Road resident, Hemesh Dayal, said that his driveway had to be dug up recently to repair a burst pipe.
“I was informed while I was at work that there was a pipe that burst on my driveway. When I got home three hours later, it was still not attended to. Water was being wasted and a few metres away, repairs were being conducted at another property. I informed them of the burst pipe on my property which they repaired, but my driveway was only filled with rubble and the pipes they repaired were thrown across road on the pavement. No-one will remove that,” said Dayal.
In addition to the aging infrastructure, there are other problems like inclement weather conditions and the vandalism of infrastructure. A Mountview resident, Ashanth Suresh, said that as soon as it rains or there is a storm, residents are left without electricity.
“The aging infrastructure is the cause of residents being without electricity and water. Recently we didn’t have electricity but it has since been restored in our area. The councillors try their best to help us and keep us informed but at times one can’t say what the issue is especially when the fault is on a resident’s property. Once when the fault was on a resident’s property, we were told that the municipality did not have the supplies to divert the cable. When the cables are vandalised and illegal connections made, it becomes worse. When it rains, the electricity goes off immediately,” said Suresh.
Ward 28 DA councillor, Renisha Singh, said residents in the area are frustrated with the collapse of the aging infrastructure and have received little to no feedback over what is being done to fix the issue.
“From December to January there were at least 30 burst pipes in the area that had to be repaired. There is no root cause why these pipes are bursting and residents want a solution. The turn-around time for repairs ranges from three to eight hours at a time for water issues. Just the other day a resident was left for two and a half days without electricity due to his meter box being affected following an outage. Residents are fed up. People are reminded daily to collect and keep water because of the sudden water outages,” said Singh.
Comment from the Msunduzi municipality was not forthcoming at the time of going to print.