Since Friday, July 25 residents in Extension 8, 10 and 16 were without water and all they could do was hope that it would return shortly but not even a trickle of water returned.
On Saturday, July 26 municipal workers started working on a pipeline which affected Extension 16 and Reyno Ridge and repairs were done on the pipes by 13:00.
“Water should be back soon thereafter,” said Mr Theo van Vuuren, city administrator, on his Facebook page at the time.
By that afternoon power interruptions were affecting the pumping capacity to high pressure towers and that caused a problem to get the levels up again.
“Levels rose slowly and there was hope that the problem would have been sorted out by Saturday,” said Van Vuuren.
According to Van Vuuren on Saturday evening, all pipe breaks were repaired.
“However, due to valves having been closed by people who clearly do not know the system, the levels of Point C could not be maintained and this necessitated the engineer to close off a big area late on Saturday in an attempt to raise reservoir levels,” said Van Vuuren.
By Saturday evening Van Vuuren started receiving reports that things started to normalise, but many areas were still affected.
On Sunday morning there was still no water in the taps.
Later that day Van Vuuren posted another update on his Facebook page.
“I can give no good news. I spoke to the engineers moments ago and so far they are not making progress. The issue seems to be closed valves as the towers have picked up. They have brought in additional assistance as this is a ridiculous and unacceptable situation. Instead of making progress more houses are now without water. I am also coming through to see what can be done,” said Van Vuuren.
On Sunday Van Vuuren came back to eMalahleni to try and help resolve the problem.
Once again the team started their investigation on the water situation and resorted to changing the water supply at the reservoirs to see if that would solve the problem.
Later Sunday afternoon most of the affected areas started to hear the pipes in their home fill up with water, after not having water for three days.
Hi, the water supply to Dixon AH are off since last week, today is the 7th day and still no water. What is going on in the area? One week and still no water, friends have phone a member of the Municipality who replied that it has been sorted out on Saturday already and he will investigate it but still no water. Water is running down Gazelle Street and Springbok Avenue but it is not running to the houses. Please let us be fair and honest, the problem has not been solved.