a day ago
Frustrations mount in Empangeni over recurring water outages
Two burst water pipes on Wednesday left certain Empangeni residents without water for the second time in a week.
One of the leaks occurred at the corner of Apollo and Weightman avenues while the second was reported on Bluebuck Street.
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The corner of Apollo and Weightman avenues has been the site of multiple burst water pipes this year – most notably over the Easter weekend and most recently on Friday last week.
The most affected areas this time were the suburb of Panorama, as well as Theunissen, Badenhorst, and parts of President Swart Avenue. Some residents were without water from 12 noon until as late as 1am to 3am.
'Yet again we are sitting without water,' said Panorama resident Lucy Behary.
'We didn't have water on Friday for close to 10 hours, and now on Wednesday, we are without water again. It's not fair. They fix the pipe, and then it breaks again.
'We all pay our municipal bills on time. Why are we suffering like this? What is going on in this town?'
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While the Samwu (South African Municipal Workers' Union) strike caused delays to municipal services, contractors were brought in on this occasion to carry out the repairs.
'They completed repairs around 1.30am, but the problem remains our ageing infrastructure. The municipality needs to budget properly for upgrades—it will save money in the long run,' said Ward 23 Councillor Andre de Lange.
'The crux of the matter is that our infrastructure is ageing,' confirmed Sibusiso Ngcobo, deputy city manager for infrastructure services at the Ward 23 public meeting last week.
'With the DWS [Department of Water and Sanitation], we've developed a business plan to replace our asbestos pipes – the same pipes that keep bursting.'
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