Call for conservation: Residents urged to use water wisely

The reservoirs in Tshwane are recovering and returning to normal capacity after a weekend of little to no water in some areas.

There was low pressure to no water in parts of Tshwane over the weekend due to damaged water pipes and heavy water consumption, which continues to threaten water stability in the capital.

Tshwane water crisis

Last week, Rand Water told City of Tshwane and five other municipalities to pay up debt owed or face legal consequences.

Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba has called on its customers to drastically reduce water consumption after Rand Water told the city residents have exceeded consumption by 15%.

“In light of this, residents are therefore urged to use water wisely and sparingly. Should residents fail to heed this call, the current water outages will worsen, resulting in more areas being affected,” he said.

Systems impacted

Bokaba said the city had been experiencing challenges of inconsistent water supply following several power failures and trips experienced during June at Rand Water’s Vereeniging and Zuikerbosch water treatment plants, as well as at the Palmiet, Eikenhof and Mapleton booster pumping stations.

“The utility system remains impacted and is struggling to recover,” he said.

Meanwhile, reservoirs have recovered in most areas, including Garsfontein and Laudium. Mooikloof, Klapperkop, Lotus Gardens and Centurion were still affected by low pressure while the reservoirs recover.

Residents in Sunnyside and surrounding areas were further affected at the weekend, with more water outages believed to be due to damage to a water pipe.

Water shortage in Tshwane

A Sunnyside resident Cobus van Staden said the water was on and off since Thursday.

“By Saturday it was completely off and has since returned,” he said.

“I don’t know what their story is, because they tried to give us the idea the second water cut was due to the problem that occurred on Thursday, but that’s nonsense,” he added.

Van Staden said he was told the water supply was cut to repair a pipe that was apparently by a construction worker on Thursday.