Pretoria - Residents in high-lying areas in Pretoria east were yesterday outraged as the water shortages that hit large parts of the city entered a seventh day.
Their taps ran dry on April 12 due to a Rand Water supply interruption which occurred while a major leak was being fixed on their B8 pipeline between the Zuikerbosch Water Treatment Plant and the Mapleton Booster Pumping Station.
It was also reported that Rand Water had a flooding incident at its Zuikerbosch Water Treatment Plant.
While the City this week reported that there had been improvement in restoring water to many households, some residents expressed frustration because they were still being hit by water outages.
Waterkloof Ridge resident Claudette Britz took to social media to express her frustration over the City’s slow pace of restoring water supply.
“And what is being done to get water to Carina reservoir? This is now day 6 of no water in Waterkloof Ridge (on top of 16 water outages this year). Get us water,” she tweeted.
Dirk Human from Garsfontein Extension 10 was concerned that there had not been updates about the water situation yesterday morning.
“We have not had water for seven days in Garsfontein Extension 10. Where are our updates?” he said.
Another resident, Alisha Jawaharlal, said: “Even though Carina reservoir appears to have recovered, residents in Waterkloof Ridge have not received water for days on end. So will you be cutting our supply and prolong the water outage we have experienced?”
Residents’ water woes continued despite the City of Tshwane’s request to Rand Water to assist with supplying water to Pretoria East’s high-lying areas.
The MMC for Utility Services and Regional Operation and Co-ordination, Themba Fosi, said collaborative actions by the City and Rand Water to restore water to areas supplied by the Mooikloof and Grootfontein reservoirs had worked.
However, he said while water was flowing into and out of the reservoirs yesterday morning, the Mooikloof and Grootfontein reservoirs were still struggling to build capacity.
“In discussions with Rand Water, we worked on a plan to not only throttle the City of Tshwane’s Garsfontein reservoir and isolate Rand Water’s Bronberg reservoir, but to also isolate Rand Water’s Vlakfontein reservoir to provide additional capacity,” Fosi said.
He said the Vlakfontein reservoir needed to be at a minimum level of 40% in order to assist with supplying the Mooikloof and Grootfontein reservoirs.
On Wednesday, he said, the Vlakfontein reservoir was at 26% and not yet able to supply the city’s facilities.
He said Rand Water throttled the outlet valve of Vlakfontein reservoir so that it could recover overnight.
“The Vlakfontein reservoir improved overnight and was sitting at 49% this morning (yesterday). Rand Water has opened full supply from Vlakfontein reservoir and we expect to see improved flows to the Carina, Mooikloof and Grootfontein reservoirs.
“Since opening supply from Vlakfontein reservoir, we have finally seen levels slowly rising at the Mooikloof and Grootfontein reservoirs,” Fosi said.
Late yesterday, the City said “the matter of high consumption cannot be over-emphasised as it is the main obstacle to the quick recovery of water levels in the affected reservoirs”.
It urged residents to avoid watering gardens, washing vehicles, cleaning driveways or patios and filling up swimming pools.
Residents were further advised to refrain from storing water in bathtubs, buckets or any other container shortly after restoration, as this would slow down the recovery process.
Pretoria News