Water and electricity supply in Kempton Park get worse

Water and electricity supply issues in Kempton Park appear to be getting worse.

Residents of Glen Marais, Terenure, Chloorkop, Birch Acres, Birchleigh, and Norkem Park had no water for four days recently.

Before that, these areas suffered without electricity for two days.

Residents were told by their respective councillors the water outage was because of a burst pipe.

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During repairs to the burst pipe, they detected secondary leaks, which further prolonged the water outage for residents.

According to a source, councillors didn’t have answers at the time because they were waiting for feedback from the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE).

Before water tanks were dispersed to assist residents, they had to make alternative arrangements.

Kempton Express is in possession of an image of a young man taking a bath in a swimming pool.

Residents who don’t have a swimming pool had no choice but to wait for the municipality to deliver the promised water tankers.

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Norkem Park resident Siyolise Bhungaze spoke to the Kempton Express.

“Having no water for four days is an infringement of our basic right as human beings. On top of that we had no electricity for two days before the water outage,” she said.

Bhungaze added she couldn’t wash her work uniform and her children’s uniforms because of the water outage and preparing for them for school was a challenge.

“This water also disrupted schools because children had to leave early, as they couldn’t use the toilets at school.”
Water started gradually coming back on the morning of November 4.

Affected residents are not pleased with how long it took the municipality and councillors to fix the burst pipe.

“I think the municipality started taking us seriously when they realised we were reaching out to news outlets for help,” said Bhungaze.