Most of Grahamstown's water supply has been cut off since Sunday. While some residents have not had running water for weeks, the most recent outage has sparked wide outrage.
Most of Grahamstown's water supply has been cut off since Sunday. While some residents have not had running water for weeks, the most recent outage has sparked wide outrage.
Grahamstown residents gathered outside town hall at midday to confront municipal management. "This is not an approved march but an informal gathering of people who feel they must make their voices heard," read a notice by Sally Price-Smith that was circulated online.
Councillor Nomhle Gaga, infrastructure and technical services director Thembinkosi Myalato, and the director of corporate services Mzukisi Madlavu addressed the gathering. They explained the reasons for the water outage, promising every person in Grahamstown water by the next day.
As far as Grocott's Mail could determine this morning, the promise has been kept.
According to an official explanation on the Makana website posted on Monday, the outage was "due to the water pipe breakdown at our main source [Howiespoort Dam] which makes the whole of Grahamstown to be out of water".
They apologised for the inconvenience: "the matter will be resolved with immediate effect". The notice has since been removed from the website.
"Management of the water reticulation valves has not been good with the result that high pressure and low pressure zones have been created," explained DA Caucus Leader Councillor Les Reynolds. "This has led to the pipe bursts all over town as a result of the unequal hydraulic pressures in the reticulation system."
"The City Engineer has to deal with the problem of staff incapacity as a matter of urgency to remedy this situation."
The water outage has caused people to turn to Twitter and Facebook to seek and share information and vent their frustrations.
According to Hilton Tarrant or @hiltontarrant on Twitter, "Rhodes is spending R115,000 a day on trucking in water, using disposable items in dining halls", while @Mr_Colin_Mkhize reported that "research has come to a stand-still in the chemistry department #WaterCrisis #Grocotts #Grahamstown".
