Water returned to the eastern parts of Grahamstown around 10pm Tuesday 28 June, and water began to return to homes and businesses in the west of the town from 5am today, with higher-lying areas waiting longer for relief.
Water returned to the eastern parts of Grahamstown around 10pm Tuesday 28 June, and water began to return to homes and businesses in the west of the town from 5am today, with higher-lying areas waiting longer for relief.
Makana Municipality has asked residents to report their water problems accurately, as staff and officials continue to work around the clock to secure the water supply which has stabilised following three days of outages.
At a water crisis meeting this morning acting municipal manager Riana Meiring expressed appreciation to staff and supporting agencies who, she said, had worked “incredibly hard” to turn around a catastrophic situation and restore the delivery of water to the town in three days.
“There will be turbidity in the water at first, but it is safe, and it will improve during the day,” Meiring said.
The water emergency began on Sunday, June 26 when an employee at the James Kleynhans water treatment works and pump station at Glen Melville Dam arrived at work in the morning to find the pump station flooded. The facility services the eastern parts of Grahamstown.
An emergency plan was immediately set in motion to deliver water to Grahamstown East, where taps were dry from 8am on Sunday. Water tankers were dispatched via the Department of Water and Sanitation and from neighbouring municipalities. Other agencies assisting Makana are Amatola Water and the Sarah Baartman District Municipality.
Meiring said on Sunday at the site of the incident that the situation was being treated as a disaster which meant no measure would be spared in acquiring resources to deal with it, and also that emergency procurement procedures for essential parts and equipment were in place during this period.
The 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. This affected the Howieson’s Poort pump station which feeds the western reservoirs.
Because the pumps stopped running for several hours, the western reservoirs at Waainek drained. The pump station there started operating at 7am on Tuesday 28 June; however, while initial projections were that it would take eight hours to raise the reservoir levels enough to resume the supply at 5pm, the municipality Tuesday afternoon announced that the reservoirs were not filling up as quickly as expected.
The supply to the town from Waainek was resumed this morning at 5am.
Makana Water Manager Ntombi Tshicela said this morning the reservoirs there were filling up and the supply should return during the day.
Water restrictions are already in place due to the drought and severe penalties will be incurred if these are flouted during the current emergency.
With regard to the incident at the James Kleynhans pump station on Sunday, acting municipal manager Riana Meiring said the necessary disciplinary action had been taken with respect to the relevant officials.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN GRAHAMSTOWN WEST TODAY
The supply has reached some areas of west Grahamstown earlier than others and Tshicela asked residents and business owners to be patient. Water started trickling into the CBD around 8am. Some Sunnyside resident reported still being without water at that time.
“The water supply will eventually be restored in all areas,” Tshicela said. “We also urge those who have supply to use water sparingly.”
Around 10pm last night, residents in the eastern parts of the town had access to water.
However, this morning the water supply has been closed off in order to allow the installation of a second pump at the James Kleynhans water treatment works and pump station.
WATER PLAN FOR GRAHAMSTOWN EAST TODAY
The Botha’s Hill reservoir, which feeds Joza is closed. It will be opened at midday and residents will again have water supply.
The supply from the Tantyi reservoir is still open and residents in Tantyi, Xolani and Vukani have water. However, the supply will be shut off at 11am to preserve the reservoir levels.
REPORTING ON WATER OUTAGES
“In many instances we have received water outage reports from residents stating they have no water, while they do in fact have water, but the pressure is low,” Tshicela said.
“The response from the technical team requires different approaches to fix either low pressure or no water situations. Knowing and assessing the problem assists the team to respond swiftly and correctly to a situation.”
For this reason residents are urged to report faults accurately.
WATER SUPPLY RECOVERY PLAN AS OUTLINED BY MAKANA MUNICIPALITY ON MONDAY 27 JUNE
Plan A
The pumping capacity of the James Kleynhans facility is normally 150 litres a second. By replacing the motor of one of the pumps and reinstalling it officials said they hoped to have it working by 10pm Monday 27 June.
However, the pumping capacity of the single pump is 75 litres a second and so while this will allow the supply to build up again in the three reservoirs it feeds – Tantyi, Botha’s Hill and Mayfield – restrictions will remain in place for a while to maintain sufficient levels.
Water tankers have been brought into town to deliver water to residents of the affected areas.
Plan B
Plan B is to get one more pump set in operation to meet full supply.
If the electrics in the facility and the motors being baked are sound, the motors could be delivered and installed by midnight 28 June 2016.
“If all goes according to plan, the facility should be back to normal (150l/sec) by Wednesday night,” Infrastructure Director Dali Mlenzana told a high-level meeting Monday morning to report back on measures taken to address the crisis.
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