Trenance Park residents pushed to breaking point by prolonged water outages

Ongoing water outages in Trenance Park New Phase, Verulam, north of Durban, have left residents describing severe emotional, physical and financial strain after a recent 10-day disruption.

Households forced to adapt amid repeated interruptions

Residents told reporters that life effectively stops when the supply fails across the area, which affected between 500 to 700 homes across 12 roads during the 10-day outage. Households resorted to storing water in buckets and bottles, boiling water for hygiene and carrying small volumes up steep driveways.

Fifty-seven-year-old single mother Kogie Reddy described the personal toll the outages have taken. Reddy said her family pays about R3,500 for a utility bill despite not receiving a reliable service, and that she struggles with arthritis while hauling water.

“My boy, who passed on Easter Monday, had a massive heart attack. It’s not easy carrying a 20-litre bucket up my steep driveway,”

Reddy linked the physical strain of fetching water to her family’s recent bereavement and said she feared for her own health: “For me to be carrying water all my life, I think I’ll be the next one to get a heart attack and die. I just lost my child, and he was the sole breadwinner in my home.”

Community activists and services affected

Dravina Ramai, a Ward 59 community activist and volunteer with the Verulam Water Crisis Committee, said residents were ready to stage a protest after the prolonged outage. Ramai said it was only after volunteers made persistent calls that a municipal team inspected the TP3 reservoir and discovered the tower had no electricity and the pumps were not working.

Ramai described how the outages disproportionately affected the elderly and mothers with young children and raised concerns about essential workers, saying first responders such as nurses and paramedics were “not able to bathe when they get home.”

Municipal explanation and repairs

eThekwini Municipality’s marketing and communications director Mandla Nsele said the disruption began with a phase failure at the TP1 reservoir, which supplies TP3. He said power was restored on Friday, 29 May 2026, but that on the same day the pumps at TP1 developed technical faults. Nsele added that systems recovered overnight but outlets remained closed to allow supply levels to build and apologised for the inconvenience.

By Wednesday, residents confirmed that most roads had water.

Related breaks and wider oversight

The Verulam central business district had emerged from a separate six-day outage caused by a burst 375mm asbestos cement pipe on Ireland Street. Repair teams were initially blocked from the site by a property owner who had built over the municipal servitude. Roshan Lil-Ruthan, chairperson of the Verulam Business Forum, confirmed the Ireland Street pipeline was completed and pressurised on June 3, with 95% of the community receiving water by midday.

Pavershree Padayachee, SAHRC provincial manager in KwaZulu-Natal, said the Commission is addressing water access issues in Trenance Park and other areas and that over the weekend the SAHRC collaborated with eThekwini Municipality, which committed to prioritising the situation. Padayachee said the Commission continues to monitor its 2022 inquiry recommendations and engage the metro.

Human-rights framing

Padayachee reaffirmed water as a fundamental human right linked to dignity and pledged the Commission’s ongoing support for affected communities.

This article is based on reporting that included direct quotes from residents, community activists and statements from eThekwini Municipality and the SAHRC contained in the source material.