Four days with no water was the plight of some residents in Eltivillas last week.

The spokesperson of the Makhado Municipality, Mr Louis Bobodi said on Tuesday that the problem occurred on Thursday last week and was fixed on the same day.

It came to light that some residences had absolutely no water supply on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The problem seems to have affected a couple of houses in the vicinity of the residence of Mr Solly Noor.

“On Monday, we complained again and the municipality sorted it out,” said Ms Farzana Ayob. They realised that it was only their block that had the prolonged interruption in water supply.

In the meantime,e information reached the Democratic Alliance that the prolonged water supply disruption in a section of Eltivillas was due to valves in the re-ticulation network that, due to negligence, had not been reopened after the work on the system.

“The Democratic Alliance finds it totally unacceptable that rate payers who pay for a basic service do not receive it because of the alleged negligence of workers who do not open valves for communities to receive water,” reads a media statement issued by the DA.

The DA demanded that disciplinary action be taken against the negligent person and that ratepayers who were affected be credited for their losses.

“This is not the first time that employees have failed in their duties and directors should now be held accountable for work in their departments which is not executed,” states the DA.

The municipal spokesperson said that the disruption in the water supply to Eltivillas on Thursday was due to the fact that the main pipe from the Albasinidam was dysfunctional.

“It had the effect that the water level in the Commando Reservoir was low. We used the small pipe and it couldn’t fill the reser-voir.”

When asked about the valves, Mr Bobodi said: “Why do you ask about valves? Pipes that get blocked can be attributed to various factors. In the meantime, we supplied water by means of tanks in that area.”

The recent interruption of the water supply in Eltivillas followed a particularly bad patch two months ago when irate residents of Eltivillas endured a near waterless December and January. The disrupting of the water supply was regarded as a cover-up for poor management.