Tsakani residents fed-up with water cuts
The area hasn’t had water running from their taps for the past four weeks.
Tsakani – Residents in Tsakani took to the streets on Wednesday morning to express their frustration about the water outages in the area.
The area hasn’t had water running from their taps for the past four weeks.
The water outage has negatively affected critical services like Pholosong Hospital, local clinics and small businesses.
On Friday, the MMC for Water and Sanitation Senzi Sibeko visited various hospitals and other health facilities to assess the water crisis.
He said Zulu Reservoir is very important to the supply of water to Tsakani, as it is also a source for Xhosa Reservoir, which supplies 60 % of the areas in Tsakani.
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“If the Zulu Reseviour doesn’t have enough supply, it tends to be near impossible for Xhosa Reservoir to function.
“We are trying to resolve the challenges at Zulu Reservoir, as soon as it meets the healthy levels it will then be able to supply Xhosa Reservoir and residents will then have water running from their taps,” he added.
Frustrated resident Fikile Nyakale explained that it is surprising that Tsakani is the only area that is affected while neighbouring areas have water running out of their taps.
“We are not receiving clear communication about what the problem is and how long we will be without water.
“We are tired of this; we either experience power outages, load reductions and when that happens, our taps run dry,” she added.
She added that waking up with water running from our taps has turned into a luxury.
“The water and power cuts are affecting those who are working from home and businesses,” she explained.
The MMC of Health and Social Development received the memorandum from the community. In a statement released by the Metro, it explained that the water storage levels remain critically low due to high water consumption and Rand Water’s stage 2 restrictions.
They are appealing to residents to reduce water usage so reservoir levels can recover. In the meantime, the city has employed various measures to improve the reservoir levels.
Among those is the reduction of water pressure in areas with high consumption and the closing of outlet valves at night to allow the reservoir levels to build up.
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