Durban braces for two-day water shutdown

Residents and businesses are bracing themselves for planned water shutdowns this week, to accompany the rolling blackouts the city is already experiencing due to load shedding, reports Highway Mail.

Last week, the eThekwini municipality issued a communique titled “Western aqueduct water supply system interruption” in which it outlined the planned shutdown for the entire affected system.

“The City would like to inform residents regarding a planned water shutdown for the entire Western Aqueduct system on 18 February until 19 February,” said the statement, issued by eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela.

“The main aim of the shutdown is to do a tie-in of the new 800mm diameter steel main from Cato Ridge reservoir into the existing 1,600mm diameter Aqueduct line.”

“To undertake this tie in, the City is compelled to completely drain the aqueduct since the operation involves mainly steel welding. The system will, therefore, be completely isolated at point M custody transfer station,” the statement continued

Mayisela said that preparations for the welding and construction on the site will begin at 6am on Tuesday 18 February with the draining of the entire area.

“This will allow the site teams to commence work at 6pm on the same day.”

The expected duration of the shutdown is 36 hours, from 6am on Tuesday morning until 6pm on Wednesday evening, leaving the areas which are served by the aqueduct without water supply for two whole business days.

“The City will endeavour to fill all the reservoirs affected to top water level; however the behaviour of respective reservoirs is different and dependent on downstream demands,” said Mayisela.

The affected areas in the Highway will include the following reservoirs:

Alverstone Nek Res Zone: which supplies water to the those in Alverstone including Alverstone North and Summerveld.
Bothas Hill Reservoir Zone: which affects Bothas Hill and surrounding areas of Kwanyuswa, Mnamatha, Mbedlane, and Magugwana
Emoyeni Reservoir: which supplied Hillcrest, Hillcrest Hospital, Winston Park and parts of Gillitts.
Knelsby Reservoir Zone: which supplies the Hillcrest CBD, and some other parts of Hillcrest not supplied by the Emoyeni Reservoir.
Westriding Reservoir Zone: which supplies Embo, Westriding, Mkholombe, Kwanqetho, Mshazi, Waterfall, Crestholme and Pinkney park.
Abelia Reservoir Zone: which supplied Kloof, Wybank and New Germany.
Jerome Drive Reservoir Zone: which supplies Pinetown CBD and parts of New Germany.
Emberton 1 Reservoir Zone: which supplied Kloof and Gillitts with water.
Emberton 2 Reservoir Zone: responsible for water supplies to Emberton and Kloof
Hygarth Reservoir Zone: which supplies the Westmead industrial area.
Clubhouse Road Reservoir: which supplied Westmead Industrial and serves as a booster to Tshelimnayma.
Tshelimnyama 3 Reservoir Zone: supplying the areas of Tshelimnayma, Dassenhoek, Mpola and Pitoli.
Kwandengezi Reservoir Zone: supplying Kwandengesi, Kwalinda and Coffee Farm.
KwaDabeka 1 Reservoir Zone: which supplies Kwadabeka.
Wybank Reservoir Zone: which supplies New Germany, and Wybank.

The above areas are only part of the shutdown, which is expected to affect areas from Cato Ridge to Ntuzuma in the city.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.