Only Grahamstown's city centre currently has water, the municipality confirmed on Monday morning.
Only Grahamstown's city centre currently has water, the municipality confirmed on Monday morning.
This follows a power outage since Saturday 16 November, when storms damaged electricity cables at Howieson's Poort dam.
Makana Municipality's Communications Officer, Yoliswa Ramokolo, told Grocott's Mail on Monday that all areas in Grahamstown were without water.
"The storm on Saturday damaged one of the municipality's electricity poles. Because it's been raining, the road is slippery and they cannot go and fix the poles."
A message from the municipality was relayed in a notice circulated by Rhodes University's Executive Director of Infrastructure, Operations and Finance Dr Iain L'Ange.
In the notice, which was circulated at 11am on Tuesday morning, L'Ange shared a message from the Makana Technical Services Directorate.
"The six fallen and broken cable poles/pylons have been replaced during the course of [Monday]," the notice read. "Work commenced [on Tuesday]morning to hoist the repaired power cable onto the pylons."
They anticipated that this task would be completed by late afternoon on Tuesday 19 November, and that the supply of power to the Howieson’s Poort dam pumps would be restored by later that evening.
"The officials have indicated that barring any unforeseen complications, normal water supply should be fully restored by Wednesday morning," read the statement.
According to Ramokolo, municipal staff were struggling to restore the power supply under difficult conditions on Monday.
She said the municipality had closed down the water supply to areas including Tantyi and parts of Joza, in order to supply the CBD with water.
