The eThekwini Municipality’s water tanker deliveries have been halted due to a diesel shortage at the Ottawa Depot, north of Durban, on Thursday.

In the past three months, the municipality has been plagued by problems to supply water to taps due to failing infrastructure. Trucks had to be used in most parts of the city to deliver water.

According to Ednick Msweli, head of Water and Sanitation (EWS), his department’s maintenance money ran out. The EWS now receives a budget of R256 million, but it needs R670 million.

When municipal council members asked for water tankers to provide water to the northern parts of eThekwini on Thursday, they were informed that the depot lacked diesel, which sparked worries.

eThekwini municipality’s spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said that municipal fuel wagons are currently re-fuelling the tankers at the depot and will be back on the road delivering water to communities.

“The internal fuel bowsers were awaiting fuel delivery from fuel suppliers. There are 59 water tankers in the Ottawa, eThekwini water and sanitation unit depot. However, not all of them were affected by the fuel delivery delays,” Sisilana said.

eThekwini Ward 35 DA councillor, Bradley Singh, said there has been intermittent supply of water to uMhlanga and surrounding areas. He claimed the depot had reportedly run out of diesel for three days.

Singh said the tankers were fuelling at the EWS depot in Springfield, adding that this was a waste of fuel and it took time for tankers to fuel up and fill up with water.

“The purchase of diesel is a simple form of mathematics. How can they run short of fuel? Is it sabotage? These municipal employees are entrusted with public safety. Some areas like Amaoti do not have water for weeks and are reliant on water tankers. The eThekwini water department is in such a mess that urgent intervention is needed to resolve the crisis,” Singh said.

In September 2024, the city announced the purchase of 100 new tankers to take its fleet complement to 260.

During an eThekwini Municipality Executive Committee (EXCO) meeting last Friday, Chief Financial Officer Sandile Mnguni said the EWS complained about old infrastructure and water losses.

According to Mnguni, the EWS was not making the proper investments. He claimed that rather than rebuilding all of the outdated pipelines, the EWS spent a lot of money on upkeep.

Additionally, Mnguni claimed that the EWS occasionally spent R50 million per month on water tankers. According to Mnguni, the funds ought to be used to improve infrastructure in order to stop water losses.

The DA Exco member Councillor Yogis Govender said the failure by EWS to forward plan to mitigate their ongoing water crisis is symptomatic of a failed system of government. Govender said she was reliably informed that the city had to dehire almost 100 contracted tankers in January.

“Most of the city is enveloped in this water crisis, which is entirely due to a ‘don’t care attitude’ for those that have run this city for decades. The hired tankers are allegedly costing the city R50 million per month. With this money how many plumbers could we have employed, infrastructure that could be fixed, capital projects implemented or even in-house tankers procured?” Govender said.

The hiring of water tankers and allegations of diesel theft at EWS have raised safety concerns for employees. It was reported that close to eight workers in the EWS had been assassinated since 2022. Amos Ngcobo was shot dead in his office in Springfield, while Phumzile Qatha was shot dead at the municipal depot in Ottawa in 2022.

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za