Broken and ageing water infrastructure in eThekwini has ruffled the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) feathers.

The DA is pressing the municipality to fix burst water pipes around the city as it is wasting a resource that the country is grappling to save, while costing the city millions.

Every year, excessive amounts of water are wasted as a result of burst water pipes which cost municipalities millions – R710.90 million in eThekwini to be exact. This was due to the loss of 132,51 million kilolitres of wasted water in the 2015/2016 financial year.

The DA’s water spokesperson in eThekwini, Martin Meyer, said the municipality’s turnaround time in responding to leaks and burst pipes was dismal and needed to be improved urgently.

“This is simply an ongoing operational failure that the ANC government refuses to remedy,” Meyer said in a statement.

As of last week, average dam levels in KwaZulu-Natal were recorded at 47%. Meyer said broken water infrastructure was the least of the city’s troubles as according to Umgeni Water, Albert Falls had an average capacity of 25% and Midmar, 59%.

Meyer said excessive amounts of water were being wasted due to leaks and as a result, the city was battling to meet the demand of residents. Residents’ taps are already running dry, he said.

At the end of January, 16 reservoirs in KZN also ran dry. This left residents across Pinetown without water, “while millions of litres of drinking water are being let down the drain by the eThekwini municipality,” Meyer said.

“The people of eThekwini certainly deserve better services than this disappointing performance from the water department,” he added. “Where the DA governs we have turned around response times to be the fastest in the country, and we cut down water losses to the lowest in South Africa.”

Meyer said that pleas to fix water infrastructure would continue as the municipality’s poor response time was only making the country’s water crisis worse.