Cold water to cool hot collars

Last week, residents across the city were united in their demand for water services from the municipality, after an incident at the Ngagane Water Purification Plant left the town without water.

The water shortages began early on Thursday morning, and by midday, Newcastle was parched.

Following the call for action from the community as the lack of water continued, Councillor Bebsie Cronje investigated the matter. Contrary to initial reports from the municipality, she discovered the main feeder pipe to the Ngagane Water Purification Plant had been damaged, and not the pipeline from the Hilldrop Reservoir.

“When I arrived on site, I learnt officials had been replacing the aged pipeline with a new one when a breakage occurred,” she explained.

Municipal workers first had to install a temporary pipeline to give them enough time to fit the new one properly.

The temporary pipeline collapsed under the immense pressure of the water supply, which resulted in water shortages all over town.

Working under extreme pressure to reinstate water supply, workers completed the task that usually takes 24 hours in less than 12 hours.

During the water shortages, 11 water tankers were dispatched to supply water to households across Newcastle.

However, many residents reported these trucks did not stop to supply the homes, neither were people notified of the times the trucks would be travelling through their suburbs. Following this, SMSes from the municipality to ratepayers suggested water supply would be reinstated at 5pm on Thursday, but this only happened on Friday morning. Furthermore, upon resetting the systems, the municipality encountered more challenges at the Northdowns Reservoir, resulting in further delays in Sunny Ridge, Hutten Heights, Lennoxton and Arbor Park. No official statement from the municipality was released during this time.

Municipal officials apologised for the inconvenience caused by the water shortages and hoped it would not happen again. “We had systems in place to manage the changeover, but admittedly our systems failed in an unexpected manner,” said an official source.