The municipality has renewed its promise to restore water to Grahamstown this week, but the new target is Friday.
The municipality has renewed its promise to restore water to Grahamstown this week, but the new target is Friday.
This announcement was made shortly before a thousand-strong group of Rhodes staff and students and Makana residents marched to the city hall at lunchtime today. Singing loudly and chanting slogans such as “We want water!” they were protesting against water cuts that have affected various parts of the city during the past three weeks.
The group gathered in the road in front of the city hall around 1.30pm, where Rhodes Vice Chancellor Dr Saleem Badat handed an open letter to Mayor Zamuxolo Peter.
He stressed that the march was representative of the anger and frustration of the entire Grahamstown community. He said if the water supply was not restored, the university might be forced to close – an action which would have serious economic implications for the city.
Meanwhile, just after 1pm today Grocott's Mail received a media release issued by Makana's Communications Officer Yoliswa Ramokolo in the name of Municipal Manager Pravine Naidoo. The statement assured that technical staff were doing all they could to solve the problems that had caused the water outages.
Naidoo explained that the reason for outages in Joza and Vukani was their geographic position [relative to the water supply], and "minimum water capacity".
Outages in the high-lying areas, namely the Army Base; Correctional Services; Cradock Heights, Kings Heights, Somerset Heights, Hill's View and the Industrial Area were due to technical problems at Howieson's Poort dam.
Naidoo further said technical problems had prevented them from meeting their commitment to restoring water by last Thursday "and again on Wednesday, 14 August".
The pump and motor have been fixed, Naidoo said, but the PLC system was still not operating correctly.
Wikipedia says PLC stands for programmable logic controller, a digital system used for automation of electromechanical processes, such as control of machinery.
The statement says Makana has consulted the Department of Water Affairs and the Amatola Water Board, who have dispatched expert support.
To share the available water, Naidoo said in the statement, they had diverted water from Botha's Hill reservoir to intermediate and low reservoirs.
"We have hired three (3) water trucks to assist with the delivery of water to the needy communities.
"We are again doing ALL necessary to RESTORE the situation (Water Outage) in Makana Municipality not later than Friday, 16th August 2013 and we apologise for the inconvenience."
Full report on the march and photos in Friday's edition of Grocott's Mail.
