ah@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n1 February 2025 | 20:30 CAT
\n2 min read<\/p>\nDurban residents continue to struggle with severe water shortages, with many left without water for days\u2014some even weeks\u2014while access to water tankers remains limited. Communities in Isipingo Beach, Phoenix, and Chatsworth are among the hardest hit, but the crisis extends to many more areas across the city.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Radio Islam International<\/em>, Ish Prahladh<\/strong><\/em>, spokesperson for the eThekwini Ratepayers and Residents Association, painted a grim picture of the situation. \u201cIf you look at Queensburgh, Northdene, Eskom, Moseley\u2014these areas have been without water for 25 days<\/em>. Twenty-five days!<\/em> This is not on! Water is a basic human right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nThe crisis is not just about prolonged outages but also about erratic supply in other areas. \u201cTake Savannah Park, Montclair, and Crossmoor. They go without water for 17 hours, then it comes on for a little while, and then it goes off again. This is really, really a sorry situation, and there is no answer from the heads of the municipality in the water department,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Adding to the frustration is the lack of water tankers, which are supposed to be an emergency backup when taps run dry. The municipality had announced the purchase of 100 new tankers to assist communities, but residents are not seeing the relief they were promised. \u201cIf you read the papers, they say 100 new tankers were bought to ease the plight of the people. Where are those 100 tankers?<\/em> Because if you drive to Queensburgh, if you drive to Northdene, you\u2019ll see one<\/em> tanker parked at a garage,\u201d Prahladh explained.<\/p>\nHe questioned how are the elderly supposed to get to the garage to fetch water? \u201cWe even said to them\u2014listen, if you\u2019re sending tankers, liaise with the ratepayers\u2019 association. We\u2019ll help guide the tankers through the neighborhoods to make sure everyone gets water. But they don\u2019t listen. They just park at the garages and expect people to come to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Protests: The Only Way to Get Authorities to Listen?<\/strong><\/p>\nWith little to no response from the municipality, frustration among residents is spilling over into protests. Recently, Chatsworth residents took to the streets demanding action. Prahladh believes peaceful protest is often the only way to get authorities to pay attention. \u201cYes, it\u2019s the only way, authorities only listen to protests. You must remember one thing\u2014as ratepayers, we don\u2019t start burning things, we don\u2019t destroy property. We go on peaceful protests, standing with placards at the side of the road, saying to the municipality, please help us!<\/em> But it seems like they don\u2019t care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nHowever, he pointed out a troubling trend. \u201cIt looks like the municipality only acts when people burn things<\/em>. You burn tires, you burn the roads, suddenly they react. But when we do peaceful protests, standing near the Higginson Highway, near the graveyard, asking them for water in a civilized way, they ignore us.\u201d<\/p>\nMany residents had hoped that changes in the Durban municipality leadership would bring much-needed improvements, but Prahladh said the reality on the ground tells a different story. \u201cThey\u2019re only cleaning certain<\/em> areas. You saw them clean up the beachfront for December, they fixed the sewer near the beachfront for December. Come on, guys! Wake up and smell the coffee!<\/em> It\u2019s not just about the beachfront for tourists\u2014people are suffering in the suburbs, and nobody wants to see it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nWhile some councillors are trying to help, Prahladh believes they are powerless in a dysfunctional system. \u201cI\u2019m not saying all councillors are the same. You do get some working councillors, but their hands are tied as well. The heads of departments are failing. They need to go\u2014that\u2019s the only way things will change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With the municipality failing to act, residents are now exploring legal avenues to hold them accountable. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to gather as many associations and residents as possible to figure out the best course of action,\u201d Prahladh explained. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken memorandums to City Hall before, and they always say, don\u2019t worry, it will be sorted.<\/em> And sure enough, they come out and fix things for a while. But then it goes right back to the same crisis. There is no stability in this municipality at all,\u201d he added.<\/p>\nAs Durban\u2019s water crisis deepens, residents are left wondering how much longer they must endure dry taps before real action is taken. Until then, communities continue to struggle, with no clear solutions in sight.<\/p>\n
LISTEN<\/strong> to the full interview with Ml Junaid Kharsany and Ish Prahladh, spokesperson for the eThekwini Ratepayers and Residents Association (ERRA), here.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Azra Hoosen | ah@radioislam.co.za 1 February 2025 | 20:30 CAT 2 min read Durban residents continue to struggle with severe water shortages, with many left without water for days\u2014some even weeks\u2014while access to water tankers remains limited. Communities in Isipingo Beach, Phoenix, and Chatsworth are among the hardest hit, but the crisis extends to many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":94759,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-2.jpg?fit=1000%2C596&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-oEm","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 00:33:19","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\/94758","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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