RESIDENTS in the Outer West have had to struggle with life’s daily activities without water for three consecutive days.
According to reports, on Wednesday technicians from EWS were conducting routine maintenance when a split valve was stuck in the wrong direction. This is believed to have caused the water flow to be diverted to Durban, emptying the Abelia reservoir in Kloof and affecting the Highway area.
“I understand the outrage caused by misinformation from the call centre, I called them myself and got conflicting responses. I told Neil Macleod that there has to be better communication at times like this. If residents are dealt with honestly and told what the problem is they will understand. It is the lack of communication and misinformation that causes the outrage,” said Ward 10 councillor, Rick Crouch.
“The outage was over a wide area and I received phone calls and messages on Facebook and Twitter from residents in Hillcrest Park, Hillcrest, Gillitts, Kloof, Winston Park and Everton. So this was a big deal. In cases like this I broadcast the information I have over Twitter, Facebook and my website as it is a very quick and easy way to keep residents informed. The water supply and pressure was finally restored to all residents by 11am on Friday 21 February.”
“Due to air in the system, water to some affected areas was only restored on Tuesday 24 February. On behalf of the municipality, I would like to apologise to all those who were affected by this outage. I would also like to thank those members of the Water and Sanitation Department who worked tirelessly day and night to restore the services,” said Crouch.
