More severe water cuts have hit various areas in Grahamstown from Wednesday until Friday. It has has only been a week since the recent water problems were temporarily attended to but more water problems continue to arise.
More severe water cuts have hit various areas in Grahamstown from Wednesday until Friday. It has has only been a week since the recent water problems were temporarily attended to but more water problems continue to arise.
Residents in the Waainek area say they haven’t had water since Wednesday evening. This forced them to fetch water from neighbouring areas.
The Grahamstown Correctional Centre in Waainek, which houses 684 offenders, has been experiencing ongoing water cuts.
According to the Correctional Services spokesperson, Zamuxolo Feni, says the pipes at the prison are small so after engineers re-opened the valves after attending to the problems earlier this month, the water pressure has been very low.
As an alternative, Feni said Rhodes University provided the correctional centre with 1000 litres of water. He also said that when the prison notified the municipality about the issue, they responded that "the problem will be soon be fixed."
Meanwhile, Samuel Ntlebi Primary School in Joza was also without water since Monday morning. According to one the teachers, Duma Myemane, the learners had to be sent home early. While the water crisis in Grahamstown is on and off, the school requested assistance from the municipality to deliver water to them.
Besides the water cuts, some residents from different areas such as Joza and Tantyi complained about dirty water issuing from their taps.
According to Martha Letswalo, the deputy director of water and sewage, the source of the problem is the old infrastructure.
She also said "in most cases there are eight pipe bursts per day and various valves have to be closed while engineers are fixing leakages" which accounts for there being no water in certain areas for extended periods of time.
When Grocott’s Mail asked why residents are not notified about water cuts she said she would look into the matter. Letswalo says the closing of valves affects other areas but the municipality are attempting to deliver water to where it is needed.
