Every afternoon for more than four years, a municipal worker has shut off the water supply to Phoenix, north of Durban, switching it back on before dawn. Thousands of working class residents in Wards 48 to 52 have lived with dry taps daily, including weekends and public holidays, while eThekwini Municipality refuses to explain why.
The daily rationing, reported this week by IOL, has pushed households into a permanent state of crisis: buying drinking water, storing supplies in buckets and drums, and heating water on stoves just to bathe. The municipality had not responded to questions by the time of publication.
Water taken from the poor, sent elsewhere?
Residents and the Democratic Alliance allege that Phoenix's water is being redirected to Cornubia and other areas. DA eThekwini mayoral candidate Haniff Hoosen said municipal officials deliberately turn off the supply to fill other zones, leaving northern reservoirs struggling to replenish.
IFP Ward 50 candidate Nalini Naidoo said she had heard the allegations but lacked verified evidence, and she demanded transparency rather than speculation.
It should provide information about reservoir levels, pumping volumes, supply allocations and the distribution of water between Phoenix and Cornubia. Residents deserve evidence-based answers rather than speculation.
The municipality has previously blamed low reservoir levels and pressure on the distribution network. But residents say the pipeline construction once cited as the cause was completed, and the cuts continued anyway.
A decade of struggle in Sunford and Grove End
Chrisintha Moodley, who lives in the Sunford Forest Haven area, told the POST the water cuts had dragged on for as long as ten years.
We have spent copious amounts of money on buying drinking water, extra buckets and drums just to store water. Everyday tasks like bathing, cooking, even washing laundry has become a nightmare. And I believe that the municipality is turning a deaf ear to our plight.
Moodley said residents had heard explanation after explanation, first new water pipes, then repairs, but the water shedding never stopped. She questioned why other wards in Phoenix did not face the same daily interruptions.
Timothy Govindasamy, a pensioner who has lived in Grove End for six years, said residents had been abandoned to fend for themselves. In six years, he said, a water tanker reached his road only once.
We are paying through our noses for water, but some areas get it for free. Where is the justice? Every attempt to get them to hear us is falling on deaf ears.
Govindasamy said residents were given December 2024 as the deadline for reservoir repairs, but the problems persisted. When residents called a meeting at Grove End church, municipal leaders failed to appear.
Access to water is a human right, not a privilege
Professor Faizel Bux, director of the Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology at the Durban University of Technology, could not comment on the technical cause of the cuts. But his moral judgment was unambiguous.
It is unacceptable that people are forced to live like this. It should never be happening.
Section 27 of our Constitution guarantees everyone the right to sufficient water. When a municipality cuts supply daily for years, without a schedule, without communication, without accountability, it is not a technical failure. It is a political choice about whose dignity counts.
Phoenix is a predominantly Indian working class community carved out of the spatial violence of apartheid's Group Areas Act. That history matters. The residents paying through their noses for a service they barely receive are the descendants of communities this state has historically treated as expendable. The struggle for water in Phoenix joins a wider fight across eThekwini, where the DA has taken the municipality to court over its water accountability billboard dispute and picketed over questions surrounding water leak repairs and contractor payments. Only this week, allAfrica reported that the municipality was rushing repairs to flood damaged water mains, with city manager Musa Mbhele appealing to residents to protect infrastructure.
Residents of Phoenix are protecting nothing because they have been given nothing to protect. They are asking for reservoir data, pumping volumes and supply allocations. That is the bare minimum any government owes the people who fund it.
FAQ
How long have Phoenix residents faced daily water cuts?
Residents report daily water shedding for more than four years, and some, like Chrisintha Moodley of Sunford Forest Haven, say it has lasted as long as ten years.
Why does eThekwini say the water is cut?
The municipality has previously cited low reservoir levels and pressure on the network, but it has not responded to current questions about the cause or an end date.
Is the water being diverted to Cornubia?
Residents and the DA allege diversion to Cornubia and other areas, but the IFP's Nalini Naidoo said no verified evidence has been presented, and she called on the municipality to publish reservoir and supply data.