Water outages continue to plague eMalahleni
Majority of eMalahleni residents left without water for the weekend as municipality carries on with critical repairs.
Most of eMalahleni spent a weekend without water again, which seems to be becoming the trend in the city of coal – weekends equal no water.
On Saturday, June 1, residents were informed by the municipality that unplanned repairs had to be carried out at the point B reservoir, that these repairs would be carried out on Sunday, June 2, and that almost the entire city would be affected and could not be delayed any more, as the quarry is starting to run dry and would result in serious problems.
Due to rain which started sputtering at around 16:00 on Sunday, the repairs could not be completed and residents were informed on Monday, June 3, that they would once again not have water, as the repairs would be continuing and would hopefully be done by this afternoon.
The majority of the city has had water issues for more than a week already, allegedly due to low water levels in the reservoirs, but according to the municipality, the issue should be resolved today as most of the preparatory works have supposedly been completed.
Many angry residents have taken to social media to complain and make their anger known, that sitting without water for days on end is more than just an inconvenience.
According to the municipality, the repair works that need to take place are as follows:
– Fixing a major leak on a 600mm diameter raw water steel pipe along Steenkamp Street, near Bidvest McCarthy Kunene Mercedes.
– Replacement of the broken overflow pipe in one of the balancing tanks.
The damaged overflow pipeline is affecting the raw water feeder to the water purification plant, hence most of the areas are currently experiencing low water pressure to no water supply.
– Removal of sludge build-up at the balancing tanks and dewatering of valve chambers.
The majority of eMalahleni is hoping to come home tonight and open their taps and see running water, but it depends on whether the repair works that were left to the last minute can be completed by this afternoon.
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