{"id":94148,"date":"2025-01-03T17:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=94148"},"modified":"2025-01-03T17:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T15:36:08","slug":"verulam-water-crisis-committee-appeals-for-government-intervention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/verulam-water-crisis-committee-appeals-for-government-intervention\/","title":{"rendered":"Verulam Water Crisis Committee Appeals for Government Intervention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n

3-minute read<\/strong>
\n11 January 2025 | 17:26 CAT<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Verulam Water Crisis Committee emailed a letter to the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, calling for urgent intervention into the supply of water to the northern suburbs of Durban. | VERULAM COMMUNITY<\/p><\/div>\n

The Verulam Water Crisis Committee has ramped up efforts to address the water shortages affecting over 4,000 households in Verulam and nearby areas. Spokesperson Roshan Lil-Ruthan has expressed frustration over delayed responses from the eThekwini Municipality and outlined the committee’s interventions during an interview with Radio Islam International<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lil-Ruthan highlighted the critical issues, saying, \u201cFor seven days, residents in areas like Tennant\u2019s Park had no potable water. In Tongaat\u2019s Imona area, households endured up to three weeks without water. It was only after escalation to Deputy President Paul Mashatile that relief was initiated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efforts to bring relief have involved multiple stakeholders, including the South African Human Rights Commission and the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal. However, the delays have caused unnecessary suffering, particularly for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d Lil-Ruthan added, sharing an elderly resident’s plea: \u201cI cannot carry water up two flights of stairs every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee has criticized the municipality\u2019s mismanagement, citing equipment failures and a lack of accountability. According to Lil-Ruthan, the telemetry systems, which should have flagged failing pumps, were either ignored or non-operational.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenior officials in eThekwini Water and Sanitation only acted after pressure from the highest levels of government. Yet, these are issues they were informed about weeks earlier,\u201d said Lil-Ruthan.<\/p>\n

The crisis has far-reaching consequences, including the inability of the fire department to respond to emergencies due to a lack of water, resulting in tragedies. Lil-Ruthan emphasized, \u201cWe lost lives in Tennant\u2019s Park and Verulam due to this negligence. Consequential management must be enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents and the committee continue to advocate for consistent communication from authorities and accountability for systemic failures. “Put people first,” Lil-Ruthan urged, referencing South Africa’s Batho Pele principles.<\/p>\n

As the region braces for intense heat, the committee reiterates its call for sustainable solutions to ensure residents\u2019 access to this basic human right.<\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round Up with Annisa Essack and Roshan Lil-Ruthan here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za 3-minute read 11 January 2025 | 17:26 CAT The Verulam Water Crisis Committee has ramped up efforts to address the water shortages affecting over 4,000 households in Verulam and nearby areas. Spokesperson Roshan Lil-Ruthan has expressed frustration over delayed responses from the eThekwini Municipality and outlined the committee’s interventions during an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":94149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-03-173200.jpg?fit=681%2C343&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-ouw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 07:57:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}