Municipal officials are still stuck on the first step in investigating the alleged theft of treated water by farmers on the Fort Beaufort road.
Municipal officials are still stuck on the first step in investigating the alleged theft of treated water by farmers on the Fort Beaufort road.
In their most recent attempt to find and speak to land-owners where illegal water connections were discovered last month, municipal officials on Thursday drove up to the gates of a farm that houses a key valve from the James Kleynhans water treatment works.
Finding the gates were chained and padlocked they hooted – but to no avail.
When a network of illegal connections from Grahamstown's main water supply leading to farm dams was discovered last month, outraged officials vowed to confront the land-owners.
But the latter have proved impossible to reach by phone, or in person.
The alleged theft was uncovered after a municipal foreman was sent to find out why the Botha's Hilll main reservoir, which in turn feeds the Tantyi and Mayfield intermediate reservoirs, was not filling up.
Residents across the city have suffered a spate of water outages in recent weeks and the areas served by the Botha's Hill reservoir have, in the past two-and-a-half months, had little or no water for up to a week at a time.
Director for Technical and Infrastructure services Thembinkosi Myalato said the municipality was still investigating the incident.
