“We had to run around manually flushing toilets with buckets,” said the school’s principal, Patrick Arensten, on Monday.
The school’s cleaning staff stood by with buckets of water and provision was made with water buckets outside the bathrooms, for children to wash their hands.
This is one of many ways in which a lack of water affected the suburb from May 17.
The principal said there was “virtually no pressure” between 9.30am and 3pm last week.
The weak water pressure meant the school’s toilet systems could not replenish with a sufficient amount of water.
Kelly Fernandes-Penny, a Malva Street resident, told the City Times, on Monday, that her home was affected by low water pressure on May 17 and 18.
“We already don’t have water when we don’t have electricity – which is a joke,” she said, adding that her hair salon business, which she runs from home, was affected by the lack of water.
“I had to go to a client’s house to wash her hair; it’s bad, because I don’t know when I can have a client over.
“Load shedding has a schedule, but I can’t predict when the water will go off.”
An Angelier Street resident, Tersia Coetzee, said she had weak water pressure virtually the whole of last week.
She believes the metro is apathetic to the problem and refuses to issue a second reference number when the matter is reported for a second time.
The City Times also received several complaints from other residents, on the Benoni City Times Facebook page.
Ward 27’s Clr Gerrie Kriek said he is not buying the excuse given to him for the weak water pressure.
He was informed by officials in the municipality that there is a faulty transfer switch on a generator at the Northmead reservoir, on Hospital Street, which results in the generator not kicking in during load shedding.
He said he does not believe this and is in the process of arranging a site visit to the reservoir, to determine what the reason for the pressure problem is.
The City Times asked Ekurhuleni for comment on the matter, last week, but had received no comment at the time of going to print, on Tuesday morning.
