Water is available everywhere in Grahamstown and both pumps at the James Kleynhans pump station have been operational since Wednesday night.
Water is available everywhere in Grahamstown and both pumps at the James Kleynhans pump station have been operational since Wednesday night.
“They are pumping at 145 litres per second, which is the normal rate,” Makana Communication Manager Yoliswa Romokolo told Grocott’s Mail yesterday. “There are no complaints from any area about not getting water.”
On Tuesday morning the pump station was switched off so that two valves from the faulty pumps could be refurbished and engineered into one to be fitted to the second pump.
The faulty valve is custom-made and technicians struggled for days to source a replacement.
On Sunday 26 June, the pump station at James Kleynhans water treatment works was completely flooded. It took three days to restore the pump station to 60 percent of its normal capacity.
The town’s overall recovery plan was slowed by a power outage in the early hours of Tuesday, 28 June when the Waainek area west of Grahamstown experienced an electricity outage, affecting the pump station which feeds the western reservoirs.
The reservoirs took longer than expected to refill and it took 24 hours to resume the supply to some parts of Grahamstown West.
Extra water tankers were brought into Grahamstown.
The acting municipal management put emergency protocols in place on Sunday 26 June to secure the assistance of provincial and national government departments and partner organisations.
Water restrictions were already in place due to the drought.
With regard to the incident at the James Kleynhans pump station, acting municipal manager Riana Meiring said on Monday 27 June that the necessary disciplinary action had been taken with respect to the relevant officials.
Yesterday morning Grocott’s Mail drove past three leaking pipes near Extension 10 and reported it to the municipality. Ramokolo said the leaks were caused by vandalism and as a result the Mayfield reservoir had low levels this morning.
“But the engineers were able to pump water from the Tantyi reservoir to Mayfield and there was water in the area the whole day,” she said.
Ramokolo appealed to community members to refrain from damaging equipment that would cause problems for the community in the long run. “The plumbers have managed to fix the problem and stop the leakage,” she said.
WHO WAS AFFECTED AND WHY?
Grahamstown has two water systems. The east is supplied by water from the Orange River via Glen Melville Dam north-east of Grahamstown. The James Kleynhans water treatment works carries water from there to Botha’s Ridge, Tantyi and Mayfield reservoirs.
Tantyi and Mayfield reservoirs serve Tantyi, Mayfield, upper Joza and Hlalani. Botha’s Ridge serves the other eastern areas of Grahamstown.
All these areas had been directly affected by the problems at James Kleynhans.
The west of Grahamstown is supplied by local dams feeding into the Howieson’s Poort pump station. Water from there and other local sources is processed at the Waainek water treatment works, west of Grahamstown.
These areas had also been affected by the problems at James Kleynhans.
There are high-lying areas on the west of Grahamstown that are at times without water because of the low level of the intermediate reservoir at Waainek that feeds them.
Usually when the western reservoirs get low, water can be released from the James Kleynhans (east) system into them. Because of the incident at the eastern pump station on Sunday 26 June, that had not been possible.
• Find updates on water outages on the Grocott’s Mail Online Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/grocotts/ or tune into Radio Grahamstown at 102.1 FM or Rhodes Music Radio 89.7 FM
You can call the Engineers Department 046 603 6063 (office hours); Customer Care 046 603 6134 (office hours); Fire Department
046 622 4444 (after-hours emergency only).
