Residents in various parts of Grahamstown were fuming with anger on Sunday as yet another unscheduled water outage hit the area.
Residents in various parts of Grahamstown were fuming with anger on Sunday as yet another unscheduled water outage hit the area.
According to most residents, their taps were dry between 4pm on Saturday and 4am on Monday. Many resorted to hunt for water in neighbouring areas on Sunday morning. However, in the afternoon a water tanker from the municipality’s fire department supplied the residents with the much appreciated water.
Extension 9 resident Siphokazi Ralo said she had to send her children to draw water from neighbouring areas on Sunday morning as she could not do without water any longer. "It was like my family’s life had come to a standstill, we couldn’t wash or flush the toilet," she explained. "I think it’s irresponsible of the municipality not to warn us about these things in advance."
Another Extension 9 resident Chris Elbrug said he used his bakkie to draw water from his brother’s house in Hooggenoeg. "I filled a couple of 20 litre and 25 litre bottles with water so that we could, at least, do our household chores," he said.
Extension 3 resident Sivuyile Nelo said: "My family survived the outage because we have a rainwater tank in our premises, and we helped some of our neighbours with water as the whole Joza had dried up."
Residents in Fingo and Extension 7 complained that the water coming out of their taps was dirty. Tamie Matiwana, from Fingo, said a brown sludge was coming out of their taps on Sunday.
Extension 5 resident Lungile Klaas said their area was so dry that he had to chase the fire department’s tanker which was supplying water throughout Joza. "It was in Nompondo Street when I caught up with it, I couldn’t wait to get water any longer," he said.
According to Makana Municipality, the level of water at James Kleinhans Dam has hit an all time low and the Department of Water Affairs was recently notified to open valves to supply more raw water. "The department said the next scheduled date for opening the valves was 25 September 2009, water finally reached the municipality’s treatment plant late last week," said media spokesperson Thandy Matebese.
He added that on Friday water pumps had to be switched off when municipal officials noticed mud leaking into the treated water. "This was done to clean and refill the storage tanks," he elaborated.
The other areas which were also affected by the outage were King Heights, Vukani, Hlalani and Extension 8. "It was also discovered that there was a minor fault with the electricity sensors and therefore water supply is likely to be interrupted in most parts of Makana when maintennance work is done", he said.
Matebese said that if conditions are suitable for maintenance, it will be done tomorrow but that they are waiting for confirmation from their technicians.
