Fury as Durban North taps run dry

A Durban North resident passes by Harrison Drive, where a recent burst pipe has caused a water issue in Glen Anil and surrounding areas. l Supplied

A Durban North resident passes by Harrison Drive, where a recent burst pipe has caused a water issue in Glen Anil and surrounding areas. l Supplied

Published Jul 5, 2024

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Durban — Glen Anil residents north of Durban woke up to dry taps recently, following a recent burst-pipe incident.

Some have complained that the issue has been ongoing the whole week.

A resident who spoke to the Daily News on condition of anonymity said on Wednesday night when passing Harrison Drive to see if work was being done on the burst pipe she recorded a video.

There was nobody on site and it had been this way the whole time. “The entire day, there’s been nobody here. Where are the plumbers? This is the sixth trip to this location since the morning,” the resident said.

On Thursday, ward 110 councillor Aamir Abdul told residents he had messaged the head of eThekwini Water Services (EWS), the area managers on duty, exco members and the city manager.

He also revealed Virginia Tower levels were still low (telemetry is down and they are awaiting a manual dip).

In a message to the City officials, a resident said he had been trying since Thursday to get proper information about the water outage affecting the residents of Glen Anil (Harrison Drive and surrounding), adding that it had now been going on for three days.

He had been pushed “from pillar to post trying to get a direct answer to feed back to the residents”.

He added that they have been told everything from burst pipes to closed valves but it seems no one has any solid answers about what the problem is. He asked for intervention and a response to what the problem might be.

He also enquired about when the pipe would be fixed and whether there were enough contractors. He wanted to be able to relay the message back to residents.

On Wednesday morning, another resident said she had spoken to the EWS.

She said: “Apparently there was an issue with one of the anchors of the rider main in the area today.

“An anchor in the context of a water reticulation system refers to a structural component used to secure or stabilise pipes.”.

Last month, the eThekwini Municipality spoke about the Northern Aqueduct pipeline, the line that directly affects northern areas, including Glen Anil.

At the time of writing, residents confirmed that an EWS team had arrived to continue with investigation of the leak at Harrison Drive.

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