Water woes for Edenvale residents

After the floods which occurred on November 9, residents of Edenvale and the surrounding area were faced with yet another crisis – no water.
According to Clr Heather Hart of ward 18, following the heavy rains on Wednesday evening, November 9, the Isandovale reservoir ran dry, leaving a number of residents without water.
“Due to a malfunctioning alert system the Isandovale Reservoir ran dry on Wednesday night,” said Clr Hart.
She said the reservoir was only able to be refilled on November 11, as result of the controlled water supply by Rand Water.
Clr Hart said Rand Water had to be contacted to increase the supply of water to the reservoir as the demand was greater than the supply from Rand Water.
Clr Bill Rundle of Ward 19 said many residents in his ward were also left without water. He believed the flood had caused damage to the water infrastructure which led to water being wasted.
Clr Hart said on November 14, Edenvale residents again woke up to no water.
“Residents of the other half of Edenvale awoke to no water again due to infrastructure problems at the Town Reservoir,” said Clr Hart.
She said the extreme use of water was not because the residents were not obeying water restrictions.
According to Mr Themba Gadebe, the spokesperson and senior media manager of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, the water level in the reservoir was lower because of the restricted water flow from Rand Water. The restricted flow is the result of the 15 percent reduction that is required.
“The reservoir is monitored by a logger which is programmed to send an SMS to officials once a certain minimum level is reached, allowing something to be done before critical levels are reached. Unfortunately, the SMS was never sent due to a malfunction,” said Mr Gadebe
He said currently there are no infrastructural problems in connection to the Edenvale Town Reservoir.
Mr Gadebe said in order to ensure that residents and community members had access to water, the EMM provided water tankers on November 15 until the water supply was reinstated at 7pm.