Cape Town warns that water supply may be intermittent at stage 6

Capetonians who are seeing red over load shedding should also prepare for possible interruptions to their water supply should Eskom decide to move to stage 6, it emerged on Tuesday.

Citizens around the country were caught by surprise when the power utility moved to stage 6 on Monday evening. On Tuesday, it moved back down to stage 4 until 11pm.

Now the City of Cape Town’s water and sanitation department has warned that stage 6 would likely limit its ability to provide water across the city in the usual way.

“Our pumps for both the water and sewerage systems cannot operate properly without power for significant periods,” it said in a statement.

“The nature or extent of the possible water supply interruptions is not yet known, but our operational teams are on full alert and the situation [is] being monitored intensively. Updates will be provided on a regular basis.”

The City said residents “should not panic” but use water sparingly and prepare for the possibility of having no water for a period of time.

It advised that residents store enough municipal tap water for drinking, cooking, and basic ablution.

“The City apologises for any inconvenience that may be caused due to this operational challenge.”

Eskom warned that cuts were likely to continue for the rest of the week as it battled severe capacity constraints caused by unplanned outages and flooding.

On Monday, it announced that heavy rains and floods at three power stations caused its already-reduced generation capacity to plunge further.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a statement on Monday, said public anger over the “devastating” power cuts was understandable, while Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan apologised on eNCA.

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