A power failure on the Howieson's Poort line late on Wednesday 13 November was responsible for subsequent water outages experienced in high-lying areas, Makana Municipality's Director of Infrastructure and Engineering Services Thembinkosi Myalato told Grocott's Mail on Thursday 14 November.
A power failure on the Howieson's Poort line late on Wednesday 13 November was responsible for subsequent water outages experienced in high-lying areas, Makana Municipality's Director of Infrastructure and Engineering Services Thembinkosi Myalato told Grocott's Mail on Thursday 14 November.
Grahamstown residents have been reporting water outages, low water-pressure and intermittent power cuts to Grocott's Mail since Sunday.
Readers from Somerset Heights and the Grahamstown Riding Club reported water outages since Sunday night, with some from Westhill reporting very low water pressure. One Cradock Heights resident said his water had been off since last Thursday 7 November.
Myalato said he had a team resolving the problems.
"We also had a power failure this morning. My team is on the site, currently walking the line to find out what is the problem," Myalato said on Thursday morning. "Once the power is restored it will take about 6 to 8 hours to fill up the reservoirs at Waainek."
He said they hoped the water will be restored soon after the electricity problem is fixed and the reservoirs filled.
In a notice circulated on the internet on Tuesday evening, DA Councillor Les Reynolds gives a different account of events.
"One of the pumps at the Howieson's Poort pump station is down with the result that the remaining pump is not able to supply enough water to the filter beds at Waainek," he said in the widely circulated post. "Therefore no filtered water is reaching the intermediate reservoirs above Rhodes and these are now critically low resulting in the high lying areas not getting water."
