Last Wednesday, former City employees, concerned residents, water experts and organisations attended the SAHRC meeting to raise concerns and offer solutions. Speaking at the meeting, Verulam water crisis committee spokesperson Roshan LilRuthan said he had received information from a City employee two days prior to the meeting that there is a locked chain around a Mountview reservoir valve. He said it was understood that every night the reservoir fills with water and the next morning it is empty, while residents suffer with no water flowing from their taps. He said that according to the whistleblower, over the past two years staff had been writing to management, asking for the chain to be removed. "If you remove this chain those homes 30 homes without water will instantly get water and there will be free flow of water to TP1 and TP2," said LilRuthan. LilRuthan further alleged that the reason behind this "internal sabotage" was for pressure to be built in the Phoenix reservoirs. "Commissioner and colleagues, I need someone to go there today and remove that chain and let's see if this works because clearly it is sabotage," he said. In response, SAHRC CEO Vusumuzi Mkhize, called on the City, who was represented at the meeting by Water and Sanitation Unit head Ednick Msweli, to investigate the matter. The day after the meeting, The Mercury asked the City if it had investigated the allegations. In response, eThekwini municipal spokesperson Gugu Sisilana confirmed that the valve has a locked chain around it. "This valve must stay shut in a closed position otherwise Mountview Reservoir will not fill fast enough to sustain levels and supply upstream reservoirs of TP1 and TP3," she said. Sisilana said that currently, Mountview reservoir was being filled via the recently designed two top inlets to both compartments. She advised that the locked chain on the valve was an operational decision and that "there is no reason to investigate an internal sabotage as there is none". "There are war room meetings every Wednesday and Friday morning with the Verulam crisis committee, and this could have easily been explained in detail during these meetings if this was queried by residents stakeholders who attend these meetings," said Sisilana. Asked whether closing a valve in a reservoir in one area could possibly build pressure in reservoirs in other areas, the City said: "This is definitely not true as we cannot supply any other reservoirs from this section as water cannot flow uphill without being pumped as the current system is supplied via gravity."


Source: The Mercury