Grahamstown residents should fill their swimming pools, fill their water tanks, water their vegetables – whatever it takes to use more water.
Grahamstown residents should fill their swimming pools, fill their water tanks, water their vegetables – whatever it takes to use more water.
That was the call from Amatola Water's Chris Nair on Wednesday 2 April, as he announced that all the city's reservoirs were full to overflowing.
"From a position where we couldn't supply enough water for everyone, we now have an oversupply," Nair said.
Explaining the reason for the apparently bizarre request, Nair said the pump at the Howieson's Poort pump station could not be turned off, despite the storage dams at the Waainek Water Treatment Works being full to capacity.
Howieson's Poort feeds directly into Waainek.
The motor from the standby Howieson's Poort pump is currently being repaired, Nair said. Because they're not confident they'll be able to restart the remaining pump, they have opted to keep it running, despite the current oversupply of water.
The request to use the excess water will end some time on Friday, Nair said, when the second pump is expected to be up and running again.
"I want to emphasise that the quality of the city's water has not been compromised in any way, it's just that for the next two days we have the unusual problem of oversupply," Nair said.
Amatola Water has been contracted by Makana Municipality since November 2013, to manage its bulk water supplies for the next five years.
Makana Municipality had not responded to a request for comment by 10.30am on Wednesday morning.
