Pretoria residents endure water shortage, queue for hours in cold

Frustrated Pretoria residents queued in the cold to fill containers with water after planned upgrade work on the water supply network in the city left their taps dry for over two days.

A local ward councillor had to jump in and stop residents who were fighting to jump the queue.

A resident, Mariam Sithole, was among those who stood in the queue and watched how other people jumped the queue.

Jumping and grabbing water

“People are jumping in at the front and grabbing the water while we wait and wait. They even told us to go and buy our own water. Imagine that,” she said.

Sithole said she had been without water for more than a day.

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Some residents complained that businesses came with big containers to collect water, while residents had to queue for hours to fill up two-litre bottles.

Local residents and foreigners also started bumping heads at the water tank to get to the taps and cut the lines.

Left without water

Another resident, Tiny Nkosi, said they waited so long yesterday that they gave up and left without water.

“People are not cooperating. They are pushing and shouting at each other,” she said.

Yesterday afternoon, ward councillor Shaun Wilkinson said he received reports that some properties in the CBD had water, but not much pressure.

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“It will take several hours to fill up the reticulation grid,” he said.

The water cut was due to planned upgrade work on the water supply network. It was prolonged after the maintenance took longer than expected when a gear broke while trying to reopen the valve at the reservoir.

Affected areas

Among the areas affected are Barclay Square, Sunnyside Primary, Jubilee Park, Butterfly Park opposite Sunnyside Methodist, George Brink Park, Jacaranda Hospital Park and Unisa campus.

Wilkinson said the municipality acted promptly by supplying enough water trucks to ensure all residents had access to water.