“Water outages in most of eMalahleni…Still no update about the water outage…Feedback will be given as soon as the team detected the problem with the water outage…” and so it goes on for seven to eight days at a time in our lovely Coal City.
This was the updates and feedbacks for the residents in Reyno Ridge and Ben Fleur for more than a week without water.
After several attempts getting hold of the Municipal Manager to repeatedly reporting the water outages in both this areas since March 17, the first explanation given on March 22 was,
“Water supply is a serious concern and challenge to vast and various areas within the municipality. The main reasons amongst others are the continued load shedding and load curtailment from the utility Eskom. The municipal main substations are affected which provide electricity to the main Witbank Dam water pump station, Witbank water treatment works and main command reservoirs of Point B, C & D. Electricity cut at Witbank Dam station resulted in the raw water quarry level to go down this rendering package plants not functional thus in essence about 15 mega liters of water not available in the water supply system. The water plant is working from generators with limited capacity and that water cannot be pumped to reservoirs and pumped to consumers due to no power supply. The water supply system dries out quickly due to high demand and consumers storing water thus the system recharge when electricity is restored takes long. The air ingress in the system does not spare us with air lock and multiple pipe breakages which with limited resources takes time to attend. The water supply stabilization will not be reached due to continued load shedding and load curtailment. Isolated incidents should be reported and will be investigated to effect repairs. Consumers are urged to turn off their water taps, switch off all plugs and appliances as when power is restored there is an inrush current into the electricity system capable of damaging equipment and infrastructure. Maximum pumping is done from the dam and all package plants are operational feeding into the system and capacitating the reservoirs. This process takes time and with the system empty, distant and high lying areas will struggle to have water. Please note: When load shedding occurs, the cycle starts again from the beginning. Let’s all use water sparingly and we hope the electricity grid to stabilize. Hopefully if there is no load shedding and load curtailment tomorrow, we will be able to restore water supply.”
After two days without load shedding but no water for the residents an ‘excuse’ from the Local Municipality was given on March 24 stating,
“The water supply to a portion of eMalahleni has been severely affected mainly due to high demand versus supply. The reservoir levels have not yet stabilized in order to operate at the normal reservoir levels. The Department of Water is appealing to communities to use water sparingly whilst the team is doing everything possible to normalize the situation, especially communities which are not affected to assist those without water supply…”
“How can one stay positive living in such conditions? Excuses following on excuses but nothing are being done. The best of all is that while we sit without water, the water is pouring down the road as pipes burst and crack,” said resident Danie Fourie.
WITBANK NEWS contacted the municipal spokesperson, Mr Kingdom Mabuza regarding this ongoing problem with the water dating back since December 2018 and his response was, “We are well aware of the challenges of regular pipe bursts and shortage of supply as a result of old and insufficient infrastructure, as well as disruption because of electricity interruption. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that residents receive consistent water supply. We request residents who have water challenges to alert their ward councilors who will organize that they get water tanks”.
