Muni: Power outage at Ebenezer negatively affects city’s reservoir levels

POLOKWANE – Water supply from the Ebenezer Scheme has been stopped amid major power outages in the Tzaneen area. This disruption has negatively affected Polokwane Municipality’s reservoir levels which are at their lowermost levels with most sitting at 0%.

Municipal Spokesperson, Thipa Selala says Lepelle Northern Water (LNW), this morning notified the municipality about power outages within the Tzaneen area which directly affects the Ebenezer plant. “This morning’s water supply readings from the plant indicated that the scheme is not pumping water to the city and this challenge has left most areas within the municipal area without water supply.”

Selala added that as a result the municipality has deployed water tankers the affected areas to provide temporary relief. “LNW team will provide updates in terms of progress in resolving power dips affecting the Ebenezer line,” Selala concluded.

Meanwhile, the Olifantspoort plant resumed pumping to the city on Thursday afternoon, following a stoppage due to multiple water leaks along the specon line, earlier the morning.

Yolande Nel, a LNW Spokesperson explained to Review that Thursday’s interruption in water supply was the result of three leaks discovered along the main pipeline between Olifantspoort plant and the Specon reservoir which supplies the city with water.

“Two of the incidents are being attributed to alleged vandalism, while the third was discovered to have been due to ageing infrastructure,” she explained.

Nel added that the incidents of alleged vandalism reportedly occurred in the vicinity of Seleteng village. “In the one instance the community allegedly wanted to gain access to water and in the other, vandalism was allegedly committed to secure access to water for livestock.”

Operations of the plant that were stopped for an anticipated five hours and were resumed again the same afternoon at around 16:40, she concluded.