Water everywhere but not a drop to drink, to flush or wash… - Randwater promised for December
Water everywhere but not a drop to drink, to flush or wash…
- Randwater promised for December
Written by Kormorant | 17 November 2011
The water crisis in Hartbeespoort has desperate
residents up in arms, and the Madibeng Municipality has now announced
strict measures to address the water scarcity.
The water supply in Hartbeespoort will be shut
off at 22:00 every night and turned on again at 05:00 in the mornings,
Madibeng municipality spokesperson Tumelo Tshabalala announced on
Wednesday.
“On Tuesday afternoon, after repeated requests, the Municipal Manager gave instructions to the technical department to start controlling the valves,” ward councillor Graeme Peplar said on Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning at 05:00 the
Schoemansville and Meerhof reservoirs each had reached only 10% of their
capacity, and by 7am they were both empty. “The plant in Schoemansville
has been functioning at full capacity for the last 3 months without any
hiccup.
We have requested that the council look at implementing “load shedding” where certain areas’ water is shut off for a certain period. A similar request was denied last month,” he said.
“I have received confirmation from the
Director Technical services that Rand Water has sent them a program plan
for completion of the pipeline and that the hand-over date to Madibeng
is scheduled for 5 December 2011.”
Excavations and valve procurement are already
completed. The last day of laying pipes is planned for 30 November and
interconnection will be done on 2 December after all work has been
completed and inspected. The recent hold-up was the result of the
municipality not registering a servitude for the pipeline with the North
West Department of Roads.
“However, the department has this week given
permission to attach the pipeline to the Xanadu bridge without first
having the paper work completed,” Graeme said.
“It has come to our attention that the
necessary servitudes for the whole line, from Jasmyn to the Zilkaats
reservoir, including the reservoir, has never been registered and no
plans were submitted by the previous consulting engineer.
A private engineering
company, Civilconsult, has made themselves available to draft the
necessary as-built plans at their cost to facilitate the program of the
line.”
He said that an investigation will be
requested at provincial level into the previous consulting engineers.
“We ask the community to continue to use water
sparingly, not to wash paving or cars with hose-pipes, and not to water
gardens as there are areas like Meerhof and Xanadu who have had almost
no water for the past five weeks.”
Ward councillor Erna Rossouw said yesterday
that water tankers are available and have already started delivering
water to businesses and guest houses.
“Anyone with a water crisis can contact myself
or Graham to find out when the tankers will be available.,” she said.
“A revised program has been submitted by
Randwater for the completion of the Xanadu pipeline, which indicates the
completion and handover in early December 2011. This will solve the
problem for good,” Tshabala said.