The water problems that the residents of Kokosi and Fochville experienced this week were so bad that they led to
protest action.
On Sunday, residents of Kokosi Ext. 4 were furious when they were without running water for the fourth day in a row. To make matters worse, the water that the municipality delivered was brown and not suitable for drinking.
In the meantime, residents of other parts of Kokosi were also stuck without drinking water in their homes and no
one knew what the trouble was.
Although the municipal contractors did deliver water, the residents had to collect it in whatever containers they
could find, resulting in much anguish.
In the meantime, residents of the new Ext. 6 housing project still do not have proper water either. As a result, the allocated solar geysers could still not be erected at many of the new units.
The problems became so bad that residents resorted to protest action on Wednesday, 21 February. By the time of
the newspaper going to print, they had blocked off various access roads in Kokosi and were also burning tyres.
While they were without water, the residents of Fochville had no option but to collect water from the streams of water flowing, not only from the municipal reservoir in Disa Street but also from unattended leaks on the corner of Horvitch and Pretorius street and Jakaranda Avenue, among others. Some areas of the town also experienced water
shortage over the weekend.
On Tuesday morning, the DA constituency head, Ina Cilliers and councillor Carlos Rebelo stood watching how such large volumes of water flowed from the reservoir in Disa Street that it washed away a part of the road surface.
The Herald asked the Merafong City Local Municipality about the Kokosi water problems on Tuesday.
‘The municipality has been working on the main water pipeline to Kokosi to ensure that the Ext. 6 water pressure
is improved. A new pressure regulating valve was installed and the leaking bend was repaired. The appointed consultant is working on the matter and, as soon as the challenges have been resolved, the water pressure to the high
areas in Kokosi will be restored.
‘The water quality technician was contacted immediately after the matter of the water tanker quality was raised.
The section maintains the water tankers, sterilises them and monitors the water quality prior to any water delivery,’
the spokesperson said.
When asked how the issues have affected the Ext. 6 housing project, the municipality said the water interruption
last week was, in fact, done to restore sustainable pressure to Ext. 6 by upgrading a component in the pipeline to this area.‘The water system to Fochville is under pressure because of the lengthy period of unavailability to Kokosi. The 450 mm pipe supplies Kokosi and, if there are no withdrawals on the system, it fails. As soon as the water upgrade to Ext. 6 has been sorted out, the situation will be back to normal,’ the spokesperson assured.
