More water cuts have recently hit various areas in Grahamstown since last Wednesday.
More water cuts have recently hit various areas in Grahamstown since last Wednesday.
In areas such as Joza and Waainek residents had to find alternative accesses to water while others solely depended on the municipality’s assistance.
Makana Municipality has confirmed that the cause of the problem is due to a pipe that burst between Howison’s Poort and Waainek. Municipal spokesperson Thandy Matebese says that the engineering department is still waiting for a vaccum jacketed pipe joint which they have ordered from Johannesburg to fix the pipe.
He also said, as he has many times before, that "the frequent water outages are caused by the Grahamstown’s ageing infrastructure." Although the Fire Department assisted residents by delivering water to affected dry areas, Grahamstown Correctional Centre in Waainek didn’t receive any assistance. The municipality says that this is because the Fire Department only has two water tankers which have been supplying farms and rural areas with water, so they couldn’t deliver water to the prison.
As the centre houses 605 offenders, health and hygiene were severely affected. Some inmates were visited by their relatives who brought water for them, while others had to depend on the water that was fetched from a fire hydrant near Makana Meadery. Residents from various areas fear for their health as sanitation is one of the main factors affected by the outages. They also complained that there was no notice given to them to inform them or update them about the water issues. Garth Cambray, managing director of Makana Meadery says that the ongoing water problems are affecting business. "We can’t do nothing without water and it’s frustrating," he said. One of the farms that was assisted by the Fire Department is the Grahamstown Ostrich Abattoir where water was restored on Wednesday. The general manager of the abattoir, Gerrie Botha says "the abattoir was not badly affected" because they had water tanks and assistance from the municipality.
"I would like to say that we are really grateful for the Fire Department’s assistance. Repeated attempts to get an official response from the Correctional Centre drew a blank.
