Frustrated Ladysmith residents, who have been without a water supply for a month, protested outside the uThukela District Municipality’s offices on Friday.
Residents were told that the water supply could be restored on Saturday night once pumps were functioning at the eZakheni (eMbizeni) Water Treatment Works.
Maseehullah Gaffar, chairperson of the Ladysmith Civic Association, said enough was enough and decided to get answers directly from the source of the problem and where management of uThukela was based.
Gaffar said that had the municipality been transparent and communicated with the residents, the protest would not have happened. Residents, he said, were not aware of pump failures. Gaffar claimed that a water tanker was only seen once in the area since the taps ran dry. Gaffar said ratepayers were relying on water extracted from boreholes at religious sites in Ladysmith to sustain themselves.
Gaffar said local non-governmental organisations also distributed water in bottles to the area which played a huge role. Gaffar called for residents to be united against poor service delivery. Gaffar said residents had purchased a lot of bottled water from the shops, something most had not budgeted for.
The association also objected to a tariff increase based on poor service delivery. The association stated that the proposed tariff increases did not cater for the rehabilitation of the water treatment works, sewer pump stations and the renewal of old pipeline infrastructure in the ratepaying wards.
“This is an ongoing problem. We also submitted a request for a rebate on our water bills. We cannot pay for water we did not have,” he said.
UThukela District Municipality Mayor, Inkosi Ntandoyenkosi Shabalala, said they had procured four new like-for-like pumps for the eZakheni Water Abstraction Plant to replace the ageing pumps that have not been able to abstract the minimum required capacity of water for both residential and industrial consumers supplied through the eZakheni (eMbizeni) Water Treatment Works. Shabalala said he was also directly affected by the water outage.
Shabalala explained that the new pumps are designed to immediately enhance water abstraction capacity and are fully compatible with the current system —meaning no structural modifications or time-consuming installations will be required.
Shabalala said this approach enables a faster installation turnaround, ensuring that the pumps can be fitted and operational without delays. The units arrived from Johannesburg on Friday night.
“Each pump is brand new, under full warranty and guarantee, and is part of the Municipality’s ongoing commitment to invest in long-term infrastructure reliability. This intervention is expected to significantly alleviate the current water outage,” Shabalala said.
Shabalala said a recently installed pump at the plant did not perform to the expected capacity. In response, the municipality has requested the pump manufacturer to dispatch technical specialists to oversee the installation of the new units, ensuring proper alignment, configuration, and performance.
“Should the installation proceed without unforeseen technical challenges, pumping operations will commence immediately to refill reservoirs and recharge the system. This recharging process is estimated to take between 3 to 5 hours. Technical teams will remain on standby throughout the operation to monitor for any potential pipe bursts caused by airlocks due to the previously dry line,” Shabalala said.
If all goes according to plan, according to Shabalala, full water supply is expected to be restored by approximately 7 pm, with staggered restoration starting in lower-lying areas and higher-elevation zones receiving water last.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za
