Water crisis – ward councillors take initiative

Polokwane Democratic Alliance (DA) councillors Frank Haas and Franco Marx have since Friday embarked on an initiative to mitigate the frustrations of irate city residents who had to face another weekend without water when they developed five WhatsApp help lines to facilitate access to deployed water tankers and to inform consumers about progress towards restoring water supply.
This comes after Polokwane Municipality had to terminate water supply to most areas of the city on Friday to allow for maintenance work on the internal reticulation system. According to Communications and Marketing Manager of the municipality, Matshidiso Mothapo, a shutdown of the main supply line at the corner of Munnik Avenue and Grobler Street was necessary to connect a pressure reducing valve linked to the asbestos cement pipes replacement in the area. At that stage, it was estimated that water to all areas of supply would be restored in the afternoon as the contactor was busy with the final tie-ins.

“Upon completion of the work to connect the pressure reducing valve this afternoon, the line experienced a leak at a different point,” Mothapo reported later on Friday. “Water supply to the Central Business District (CBD) line had to be shut off in order to deal with that challenge. Meanwhile, technicians are continuing to work on a connection at the corner of Nelson Mandela Drive and Vermikuliet Street which is affecting the area around Ladanna, Mahlasedi, Legae La Batho and Madiba Park,” Mothapo added.
Water supply to some of the areas was, however, only restored on Monday and residents had to rely on water tankers that were deployed throughout the affected areas.

Marx explained that each WhatsApp group could only accommodate 256 members and that the public’s reaction was overwhelming. “We communicated directly with the authorities and received real-time updates from consumers and could keep them abreast of the movements of the water tankers. The groups will remain active and consumers are welcome to inform us of areas where the tankers are required,” Marx said.
The WhatsApp groups are Water & Electricity Info and Polokwane Water Info 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Story & photos: BARRY VILJOEN
>>barryv.observer@gmail.com