Botha’s Hill residents in the dark about water shortages
Botha's Hill residents have been hit with load shedding concerns and have also been left without water for days.
LOAD shedding is not the only concern for Botha’s Hill residents as they have to also endure living without water for days at a time.
A resident who contacted the Highway Mail and asked not to be named, said after three days of not a drop of water in the area and surroundings which includes Assagay, KwaNyuswa, and Embo, a plumber phoned her to ask whether she had water.
“When I replied that it was our third day without water and we had logged many complaints telephonically and on the WhatsApp number for water faults, we were still without, he then asked if I knew what the problem was. I was hoping he would tell me. He was so uninformed as to what was happening and as we chatted it became clear that he had just been issued a ‘job card’ as he called it to investigate the problem, three days later.”
The resident said they received a message on WhatsApp which read: ‘Kindly be advised that the area is affected by a reservoir that is low and our technicians are currently on site working on the problem and water tankers have been requested to service the area in the meantime’.
“I then heard from the plumber that he is ‘in the dark’ quite ironic with all the load shedding. However, he said he could not actually help with a low reservoir and would try to see that someone would get the problem resolved,” said the resident.
“This is now an ongoing problem, every three weeks, we are without water for days. I have little faith that the reservoir can supply the demand for water and this is not being properly managed.”
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The resident said she pays R1 700 a month for water, yet she is flushing toilets with buckets of water she has to collect and has to ask friends who have water if she and her family may shower at their home as bathing in pool water is really not acceptable.
“Is this how we will have to live from now?” she asked.
DA PR Councillor in the area, Gill Noyce said when she made enquiries in the past, she was told by the water department that so many people have moved in the KwaNyuswa area and the pipe which carries the water is no longer big enough to meet the demand.
Kearsney College has also been affected and its director of marketing, Robert Carpenter, said in response to the frequent cuts in the municipal water supply, Kearsney commissioned work on a subterranean standby reservoir in 2015 and this was completed in 2016, providing the college with a standby supply of 300 000 litres of fresh potable water.
“A second reservoir was completed in January 2018, raising the capacity of standby water from 300 000 litres to 1.2 million litres, ensuring that disruptions to the normal water supply to the college do not affect our operations,” said Carpenter.
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