Residents have been in an uproar with the fact that water restrictions were imposed yet a number of pipe breaks and leaks have sprouted throughout eMalahleni resulting in a vast loss of water.
Over the weekend of April 8 to April 10, households throughout the eMalahleni sat without a drink of water, some only experienced a return of water late Monday afternoon or on Tuesday, April 12.
“We stay in Tasbet 1 and have had no water since Friday, I was told by the municipality that I would have to wait for the reservoir to fill before I will receive water,” said Mr Christiaan de Lange.
The lack of water coming from the taps can mainly be attributed to the fact that the reservoir has both high and low points, and only once water levels reach a certain level is there then enough pressure to pump the water to the high and low point households.
According to readings taken on the morning of April 10, the respective reservoirs reflected the following readings, Point A high 79%, Point A low 14%, Point B high 59%, Point B low 45%, Point C high 25%, Point C low 27%, and Point D 25%, with an inflow of 106. Compared to readings which were taken the following day one can see that the reservoirs are in fact filling and that the process takes time.
The readings were as follows: Pont A low 16%, Point A High 88%, Point B Low 20%, Point B High 47%, Point C low 37%, Point C High 31% and Point D 20%, with an inflow of 113.
In a statement to the community the Emalahleni Municipality explained that point C feeds Tasbet 1, Tasbet 2, Extension 16 and 41, and that residents situated in Tasbet 1 would be the last to receive water seeing as they are situated furthest away along the pipelines, after Tasbet 2, Extension 16 and 41.
The Emalahleni Municipality released a statement to clear up the confusion as to why areas were without water.
“The system had a number of pipe bursts on bulk water supply lines thus escalating water losses and imbalance on reservoir levels. During that process the mine water reclamation plant was also on outage for three days and it aggravated the water challenges. The system was is a process of balancing over the weekend but unfortunately there was power outage at the main distributing reservoir and it prolonged the recovery process. Pipe burst at Point C has recently been realised and it is now affecting promptness of system recovery. The recovery process of Point C reservoir usually takes a lengthy process due to its storage capacity which is half of what the town can produce,”
The statement further reads:
“There are associated limitations in the system that hinders the process. Pumping towards Point C can’t be an aggressive process since the supply reservoirs are always low due to high demand hence the limited pumping process. The areas that are mostly affected at this point are consumers at high lying areas. This is because they only get water when the system is full. Due to steep gradients and the nature of connections, supply cannot be realised during system recharge but only when the system is full. Some consumers on affected areas are currently getting water and the system is continuously improving.”
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