Tankers in Hoedspruit cause water havoc
On Tuesday, January 31, the water level of the reservoir at the Air Force Base, supplying Hoedspruit residents with water, was at 0%.
According to Col Enrico Gherbavaz, acting commanding officer, tankers are mainly to blame for the reservoir not filling up. “Tankers carrying 2000 litres of water in order to provide water to residents in areas that are without water, contribute to problems. Since the pump at the reservoir is not able to pump during load shedding, levels do not pick up,” he said. He appealed to residents to use water sparingly. “No car washing, no watering gardens, no cleaning of pavements, quick showers, no baths, flush only when necessary, and no running of taps while brushing teeth,” he said.
Gherbavaz said contractors at the new mall and Eastgate are also consuming water. “Municipal officials need to stop this immediately. There is plenty of raw water in the rivers which can be uploaded by the contractors.” He said he will be addressing the matter with the mayor soon. “In the interim, we will do our best to resolve this issue. Should this senseless practice of “draining our potable water reserves continue, we are going to be forced to take drastic steps to rectify the situation.
Also read: Hoedies want solutions for water problems
Please support us by raising these critical issues with your community and municipal representatives,” he said. Ian Owtram posted on the Hoedspruit Town Facebook page: “I know we have only been without water for a couple of days and that there are communities that have been waiting for over 20 years for water. I feel for those communities big time, but in our case, if we don’t get this sorted soon it will just get worse. What are the plans (if any exist) to keep the water supply flowing during load shedding,” he said.
Salome Booysen Joubert also commented: “We in Drakensig have strict watering times, every second day from 17:00 to 21:00. When the reservoir is low, no watering of gardens is allowed. We have been without water for nine days due to a burst pipe. It only came back yesterday at 12:00 only for the reservoir to be empty at 15:00. We just had to adapt,” she said. Odas Ngobeni, the spokesperson of Mopani District Municipality and water authority in the region, said that they are looking into a permanent solution for the water problem in Hoedspruit.
“It’s an issue that has been resolved. There is a company or companies currently busy with construction work on the mall and the expansion of the runway at the airport. They have been abstracting water through water tankers from our fire hydrants and that overwhelmed the system because of the low capacity at the water treatment plant. They have been instructed to only use raw water so that normal water supply to that community is not interrupted,” he said.
