A rainy day is a blessing and a curse in water-scarce Adams Mission, south of Durban. Residents say it means they can collect some water in buckets, but also that dirt and debris collect in and around streams, making it more brown and dirtier than usual.

Residents have not had running water for about four months. In the morning, people with 20l and 5l buckets collect water from the many streams running through the area. They have placed pipes in these groundwater sources to make it easier to get the water into containers.

Philisiwe Ndwandwe (79) says her grandchildren have become sick from the water they collect this way.

“My daughter told us to boil it and she buys us water whenever she comes, but this little one had diarrhoea and a rash because of this water,” said Ndwandwe, referring to one of her grandchildren.

Years back we were told they would fix the pipes and build new dams. That has not happened.

As we spoke to Ndwandwe, one of her daughters came in with a 25l bucket on her head full of water. The household has nine people living in it. Ndwandwe said it’s difficult to get enough water for everyone.

“I am old so I get sick easily. I try to bathe and keep my environment as clean as possible so when any illness comes up it doesn’t get worse because of being untidy.”

Sphamandla Nzimande has lived in Adams Mission since 2006 and has a car-wash business on one of the main roads. He said a lack of water has been a problem in Adams Mission for years.

Adams Mission residents use pipes to direct the water so that it’s easier to collect. (Photo: Naledi Sikhakhane)

“The councillor once came when we went on strike years ago; it was the previous one before this one. Water is an important thing. Years back we were told they would fix the pipes and build new dams. That has not happened,” he said.

Nzimande co-owns the car-wash with his brother and they fetch water from a stream under a nearby bridge and line up 20l buckets in the morning to service cars. He says the water is dirty but they manage, although washing cars is faster and more efficient when there is a water pipe with pressure.

“The water issue is killing the business. We make up for [the water] being dirty by adding a lot of soap and other cleaning products, which increases the operating costs, but what can we do? The business has to go on.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: Official reports reveal massive scale of the waste, pollution and poorly treated water crisis

Daily Maverick attempted to contact Ward 67 councillor Siphephelo Mnyandu from Wednesday, 6 December, but his phone appeared to be switched off. 

In a written response to questions, eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said the water cuts are due to low reserves and high demand.  

“Adams Mission, like all Ingonyama Trust Board lands, is designed for the basic level of service and not the full-pressure system. Unfortunately, consumers have taken it upon themselves to bypass such flow-limiting devices, resulting in more demand which now exceeds our water supply. This means our reservoirs now run empty within a matter of hours before everyone gets their share of the water supply,” said Sisilana.

A resident collects water from an unclean source. Adams Mission hasn’t had water for five months, although their water woes have persisted for more than a decade. (Photo: Naledi Sikhakhane)

Residents also claimed water tankers only show up when there is a funeral or someone pays for the water. On Sunday, 10 December, Daily Maverick witnessed an empty water truck passing by on one of the main roads, Dr Sheleni Road. When residents rushed with buckets to collect water, the driver said the truck was empty and stopped so they could check.

Some residents live alone or with grandchildren who are too young to carry enough water to run a household. 

The municipality claimed: “The City dispatches an average of 100 scheduled tankers to areas without water.”

It did not clarify whether that was 100 tankers per day that, presumably, service communities without water across the entire municipality.

Many residents said they had not had stable water for years. Ndwandwe said that when there is water “it would come out [at] night. You would be sleeping [and] next thing you hear the taps running. We all have to wake up, fill the containers and even push some of the washing in the basins to soak because it might be gone tomorrow morning.”

Water scarcity in Adams Mission is hurting businesses. One car-wash owner fills 20l buckets from a stream to run his business. (Photo: Naledi Sikhakhane)

Ndwandwe says she is lucky to have her children who can go fetch water. Some residents live alone or with grandchildren who are too young to carry enough water to run a household. 

In 2019, the DA in eThekwini called for the Adams Mission water crisis to be prioritised by the municipality’s head of water and sanitation. The party admonished the municipality for not having any clear plan to deal with water shortages. 

“The people of Nkangala, Adams Mission, have not had water since 2007 and only rely on water tankers. That is 13 years of dry taps in a metropolitan municipality with a multibillion-rand budget. Our attempts to further find out about the causes have proven to be fruitless as the only answer we got was that there isn’t enough water supply. This problem has led to financial losses for small businesses in the area. All of this is a result of years of failed service delivery by an uncaring ANC government,” it said. 

Four years later, nothing appears to have happened and residents are in the same, if not worse, position. 

Billing crisis

On top of regular water cuts there is also a billing crisis. Exorbitant bills in eThekwini are so common that the municipality has released a guide to finding the reason for a huge bill.

It says large bills might be the result of “underground or overground leaks, not paying for the water, and using too much water”.

Ndwandwe received a water bill for more than R590,000 and is worried her children will inherit the overwhelming debt. She claims she has been paying for her water.

Philisiwe Ndwandwe’s huge water bill. She claims she has been paying and could not have used that much water since it is rarely available. (Photo: Naledi Sikhakhane)

“Even if I didn’t [pay], how would the bill get to R500,000 when we go months without water?” she asked.

Her daughter, Nqobile, has been to the KwaSizakala, eThekwini office in Spruit many times to find out whether they can appeal and how they can get the bill rectified. They are yet to be helped. 

“My daughter works in retail so she cannot go all the time. The few times she has, they always said the network was off or it was too full and she had to rush to work,” said Ndwandwe, adding that her ongoing efforts to get answers have been unsuccessful. DM