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.