KNYSNA NEWS - On Sunday, a group of residents blocked the N2 entrance to Knysna near Nekkies in protest against the poor water supply in their area.

They said the water in their taps had been on and off for days and they were tired of the outages. 

They also alleged the water carting trucks were not coming regularly. This was not just in the Nekkies area, but also in the informal settlements in Concordia.

Outages hitting hard
Nekkies resident Midgiel Lizwani said the constant water outages across Knysna were hitting hard and the residents were "forced" to protest in this way.

"People went out [to block the N2] because the municipality has ignored them and some have been without water for two consecutive days," Lizwani said.

"The municipality is unable to come up with a solution. It doesn't seem like the municipality is willing to sort this out because [if they were,] this would have been sorted a long time ago."

Thembakazi Moleshe from Concordia said on Sunday she woke up with no water in the taps, and when water was restored it was dirty and not nice to drink.

"I have a five-month-old baby and I couldn't make food for her," Moleshe said. "I boiled the water as I didn't want to make my baby sick. It's difficult even using the toilet in this situation."

Understanding the challenges
Lizwani said posting statements on social networks wouldn't make the people understand what the challenges are. The residents agreed that municipal staff should come in person, together with the ward councillor, and explain the situation.

"People did not go to [block] the N2 for fun," he said. "It is because the municipality has a tendency to ignore people. This water challenge is really affecting the people of Knysna and mostly those from the upper areas.

There is no way that the municipality can say there is water now and then dispatch one truck to a large area like this one. Some people were at work when the truck came here. That is the problem here."

Southern Cape police spokesperson Sergeant Chris Spies confirmed that public order police members were deployed on the N2 at the entrance to Knysna where the group of people gathered and blockaded the road with debris. 

"Reports from the scene indicated that protesters raised service delivery issues. The police forces remained in the area until the situation was stabilised."

Rheenendal
On Tuesday morning, 14 May, angry residents in Rheenendal blocked the main road using wheelie bins full off rubbish. This action was also believed to be in protest against a water crisis that had left the community without water for six consecutive days.

Later that same day, the mayor, Thando Matika, issued an update declaring that Rheenendal's water had been restored.

In a follow-up press release on Wednesday, he stated however that Rheenendal's water supply had been disrupted the previous night due to load-shedding.

"This is an external factor beyond the control of the municipality. As a result, water pumping and treatment processes were affected, leading to low water pressure or no supply in certain areas," the press release read.

"A minor leak that is further impacting pumping to the treatment works has been identified. Repairs will be undertaken during the course of the morning, and normal water supply is expected to be restored later today. 

In the interim, water tankers will be deployed to the affected areas. The Knysna supply zone also remains under pressure. Areas currently experiencing no water supply will be serviced by roaming water tankers. 

Residents in areas where water supply remains stable are urged to use water sparingly and only for essential purposes. We apologise for the inconvenience."

At the time of going to press no further updates had been released.

‘We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news’