Water crisis in Heidelberg still ongoing
Emergency meeting called regarding water shortages.
With the current water crisis in Heidelberg, where areas have been without water for almost three weeks, councillors of the various wards requested an emergency meeting with the Lesedi (LLM) executive mayor Mluleki Nkosi.
During the meeting, Nkosi gave feedback regarding their struggle to get answers from Rand Water.
They discussed plans where LLM investigated drilling boreholes and putting up water tanks at strategic points to serve the community.
Some of the strategic areas mentioned included libraries and community halls.
It depends on LLM’s budget and what it allows to carry on with the upgrade.
Ward 8 Clr Yvonne van Coller requested a fixed schedule for deploying water trucks for the community to get the much-needed water for daily basic use.
After the council’s emergency meeting, the LLM heads of departments and executives went into a separate meeting to discuss the way forward and get plans to curb the water crisis.
Heidelberg’s reservoirs are currently not filling up fast enough to supply Lesedi sufficiently with water.
The water pressure from the Mapleton and Selcourt Reservoirs is just not strong enough.
To get the reservoirs to an acceptable level, Rand Water has to ensure that the pressure that comes through the water pipeline is at least 550 to 600kPa. At present, it is less than 250 to 300 kPa.
LLM plumbers have been working tirelessly to get the water pumped at an acceptable strength.
