The sinkhole that had caved in at the new Khutsong reservoir is growing.

An opposition party councillor, Welile Fihla, originally alerted the Herald to the sinkhole, which, according to sources, caved in on January 21. Although the sinkhole was originally only about a metre in diameter, it is now at least four to five times bigger. Although it originally looked to be at least three meters deep, it is now too dangerous to get close to. Although there are other sinkholes just oustide the reservoir’s fence, this sinkhole is the first to cave in only a few meters away from the reservoir.

Although the municipality cordoned off the sinkhole with yellow plastic barriers, they have, as far as could be determined, done little else to fix the sinkhole.

The sinkhole has also grown to such an extent that one of the original barriers fell into it when the ground collapsed.

Even though the new reservoir is not yet in use, it cost more than R80m to build less than a decade ago. All this money will be lost if the sinkhole is left to damage the reservoir.

The municipality did not answer questions on when the sinkhole would be repaired by printing time.