Grahamstown residents were relieved to see the end of a dry week after experiencing water outages caused by burst pipes throughout town last week.
Grahamstown residents were relieved to see the end of a dry week after experiencing water outages caused by burst pipes throughout town last week.
Although water was restored in some places during the water cuts, some residents still didn’t have any water until the problem was fixed on Wednesday. Deputy Director of Makana water and sewage Martha Letsoalo said the source of the problem was due to a water valve which had been left closed by mistake.
After going for days without water, Siphephelo Mthembu, an Oatlands North resident says he was excited to see water coming out of the taps. "It’s great to have water, I wouldn’t survive another day without it," said Mthembu excitedly. The borading school at Graeme College was also severely affected by the water cuts. Principal Peter Reed says "The water cuts were highly inconvenient." As an alternative, Reed said the school was assisted by various local businesses and individauls who delivered water to them.
Meanwhile, Municipal Manager Ntombi Baart reported on the water problems during a public meeting at City Hall on Thursday. While rendering a public official statement, Baart said "It is suspected that while attending to water problems, municipal officials closed water valves and forgot to open them." Baart said that there was a loss of water which caused low water levels at an intermediate reservoir which draws water from Waainek and "consequently the water pressure was reduced and resulted in water outages." The municipality also apologised to residents for the inconvenience.
Those who were affected by the water outages complained that they were not well informed about the problems. In response, Baart said that an incident management and communication protocol is being looked at as a way of informing the public timeously under such circumstances.
