Clr Yvonne Combrinck (Ward 8) called an urgent meeting on October 3 to try and gather more insight into the ongoing water crisis that has had Rensburg’s residents on their knees since August 26.
Other areas of Heidelberg also battle with water outages, but Rensburg’s nightmare started more than a week before the rest.
Rensburg’s high-lying areas reached 40 days without water on October 3.
Combrinck is in constant contact with Rand Water to try and get answers but to no avail because Rand Water has stopped sharing any information about the water issues.
Rand Water said to divert all enquiries to the municipality.
When approaching Lesedi Local Municipality (LLM) for answers, they again said the issue was on Rand Water’s side, and the blame game just continues.
The meeting was at the Rensburg Reservoir, where one of LLM’s senior plumbers, Samuel Mtaung, was available to answer questions.
Combrinck and fellow DA councillors Gerry Holtzhausen and Sieg Paul, as well as invited community members, used the opportunity to gain insight and get answers about the water system at the reservoir, with the main focus to find short-term solutions to bring relief to the areas most affected.
A concern raised by Combrinck was the pressure differential between the Rand Water inflow and the Lesedi system.
According to Mtaung, the intake pressure at Rand Water’s side measured 450kPa on October 3, but 400m further on Lesedi’s side, it measured 300kPa.
Combrinck will now ask for the help of specialists visiting Heidelberg next week to establish the reason for the differential.
Another issue is that the Rensburg ground reservoir needs to be 40% full before the pump can be started to pump water to the tower reservoir.
The tower supplies water to upper Rensburg, and when there is insufficient pressure from Rand Water’s side, the ground reservoir can’t fill up fast enough.
Internal water shifting is an option. However, there must first be a guarantee that this will not cause more damage, such as burst pipes.
Water shifting can happen by alternating the water supply between the ground reservoir and the tower.
The challenge is correctly implementing it, and engineers will have to visit the site to verify it is correct.
That way, it could lessen the water crisis to some extent.
One question asked if an extra pump along the pipeline would establish additional pressure.
Another question was why the water pressure dropped so drastically.
“With the new information, LLM’s DA councillors will now call for an urgent meeting with Star Moholobela (LLM’s manager of water and sewage), where we will do everything in our power to assist with proposals to get water shifting done correctly,” said Combrinck.
“The DA will continue to assist LLM and come up with solutions until we restore water supply to all areas of Heidelberg.
“Lesedi’s residents can not go on without water for days on end.”
