Strikes over salary disputes leave residents high and dry

RESIDENTS of Utrecht near Newcastle face dry taps after municipality workers embarked on a strike over salary disputes.

It is believed that the Amajuba District Municipality’s water department workers have not responded to burst pipes since Tuesday.

It is alleged that workers have also started sabotaging the area’s water supply by switching off water connections to communities.

Utrecht resident Andile Mjiyakho said they were angry, and the Amajuba district did not care about their suffering.

Mjiyakho added that the municipality was negligent when it came to water issues, which affected businesses and their lives.

“There’s farming here, people’s plants are dying and we have to use water from the JoJo tanks, and that water isn’t clean. This has been happening for too long. We’re drinking dirty water because of the strike, but we’re continuing to pay,” he said.

Mjiyakho said they were struggling as a community due to the municipality failing to meet the demands of the workers. At times residents went for three weeks without water, with no explanation given.

In May, residents were left without water for weeks after the municipality went on strike for three weeks.

Residents said water issues in the area started when the Amajuba District municipality took over the water supply from uThukela Water.

Sibonelo Cebekhulu, a municipal spokesperson, confirmed that workers were refusing to go back to work.

“They’re refusing to respond to service delivery queries such as burstpipe incidents. The main pipe in the Utrecht CBD burst, which has caused the reservoir to dry up. The district officials are meeting with the workers to try to find a resolution,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Ugu District Municipality on the South Coast said its water situation remained critical in some areas. Municipal spokesperson France Zama said Ugu Water services were working hard to monitor the impact of the high tide at the Umzimkulu River abstraction point.

“Almost a week later, the sea tide has started to shift to mid-rise, and salinity levels have remained within compliance as per SANS 241 guidelines for the past eight hours, which allowed the team to keep pumping and producing fresh water,” said Zama.

Zama said the team had resumed pumping to main command reservoirs in Seaslopes, Umzimkhulu, and Gamalakhe, which had been depleted critically during the past four days.

Supply to some areas was restored.