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A burst water pipe that has cut off water supply to Prince Mshinyeni Memorial Hospital, Glebelands Hostel, Megacity, and surrounding areas in uMlazi for days on end is completely unacceptable.

The outage relating to yet another burst water pipe has caused challenges not only to the repair team but to the community of Umlazi at large since Thursday last week.

Upon doing a site inspection on Monday this morning, the DA identified several issues, among which was the concern over the pipe supplying the hospital with water being embedded within the construction of a bridge on Griffiths Mxenge Highway, uMlazi V section.

As such, repairs were unable to be concluded over the weekend, which has left patients vulnerable and desperate after the hospital reserves ran dry on Saturday afternoon.

A temporary solution of diverting the water off the southern SCA line was considered, while a new pipe is being constructed; however, this solution may only take effect in the next 7–10 days and will likely affect other areas in the south.

The ANC-led municipality failed to initiate the deployment of water tankers to the hospital during the weekend, and instead it is the DA’s intervention that has led to water tankers being expeditiously deployed to the hospital on Monday morning.

While the situation in Prince Mshiyeni is unfortunate and deplorable, the DA is working tirelessly to bring relief to those affected.

This crisis requires coordination and collaboration between the government, the private sector, and the community.

We appeal to the private sector and NPOs to donate bottled water to the hospital. Arrangements have been made for the hospital to receive and store the donations.

Issued by Councillor Andre Beetge - DA eThekwini executive committee member