Municipality workers at the water leak in East Lynne, Tshwane. Picture: Supplied Residents of East Lynne in Tshwane have been left frustrated and angry after enduring prolonged electricity outages since 26 December, followed by water disruptions that began this week, compounding already dire living conditions in the area. Despite repeated updates by the municipality, residents say little progress was made, while basic services remained unreliable for more than a week.
East Lynne resident Sandra van Wyk said households had been without electricity since Boxing Day, with water outages starting on Thursday after a burst main. “We are without electricity from 26 December until today. And now we are without water as well.
This is unacceptable. We cannot live like this,” Van Wyk toldThe Citizen. “Residents don’t have the means to get a generator, they don’t have the means to buy R3 000 worth of fuel every day.
Read Full Article on The Citizen
[paywall]
People are suffering. They had to throw out food. They did not budget for this, nor did I,” she added.
According to her, municipal teams initially repaired a burst water pipe, but the problem resurfaced shortly after supply was restored. “They told residents yesterday that the pipe was fixed. When they opened the water, it started leaking again.
Now they have to start all the work over. That’s another 12 hours without water, on top of no electricity,” she said. The City of Tshwane on Saturday afternoon confirmed that the water supply had been restored.
The prolonged outage had a severe financial impact on residents, particularly those without alternative power sources. Van Wyk added that she spent thousands of rands on fuel over several days to keep a generator running. “This is money we never planned to spend. People are suffering,” she said.
[/paywall]
