“Please note: Water outage.”
As soon as this post appears on Emalahleni Local Municipality’s Facebook you can rest assured it will be hours before water is restored.
Emalahleni’s taps are running dry, and it is not as a result of water shortage.
The municipality is struggling to keep the water flowing through the pipes because their capacity to do so is ‘drying’ up.
On Friday, August 2 residents of Jackaroo Park closed the R555 after being without water since Monday, July 29.
“There was not even a water truck in the vicinity during that time. And the only response we get is that they are working on the problem,” the angry residents said.
Over the weekend the municipality isolated the system to ramp up supply at the reservoirs for ease of distribution during high demand times or peak times.
Secondly to protect the system against pipe bursts during the night when the change of temperature affects the asbestos pipes, especially the feeder to Jackaroo Park, Blancheville, Clearwater, Highveld Park, Model Park, Die Heuwel and surrounding areas.
The water problem does not only persist in the above areas.
Ms Adele Korb was furious when she contacted WITBANK NEWS complaining about the same situation.
They live in Tasbet Park 3 and were without water from July 31 to August 2.
“If there is proper communication, we would prepare for the water outages. We had to make-do without water for three days. The municipality did not even bother to send a water truck,” she said.
Once the water was back, the municipality isolated it in Jackaroo Park, Blancheville, Clearwater, Highveld Park, Model Park and Die Heuwel during night time.
“We cannot afford to lose even a single drop of water during the night due to pipe bursts and hence therefore the water supply will be opened in the morning,” was the feedback from the municipality.
Municipal spokesperson, Mr Lebo Mofokeng said the demand for water exceeds the supply.
The municipality needs another 40 megalitres to balance the scale.
He also blames the very old asbestos water pipes, the power outages affecting the water system which wholly dependent on electricity for water supply, inconsistency in pumping from Anglo Coal Reclamation Plant to the municipality’s distribution reservoirs and recovery time on production lost.
“The system is constantly under pressure due to the high consumer demand and system challenges.”
While the municipality is on a long term solution, consumers may as well keep their water storage tanks filled to the brim.
