It seems that Mogale City Local Municipality is to blame for the intermittent water disruptions that have plagued the areas of Kenmare, Rangeview, Rant-en-Dal, Featherbrooke, Noordheuwel, Monument and surrounds the past two and a half months.
Justice Mohale, media relations manager at Rand Water, the entity that supplies water to the municipality says that all their Rand Water networks to Mogale City Local Municipality are operating at their normal capacity.
“Our pumping pressures are normal and all our reservoirs supplying the municipality are full.”
In a statement released by the municipality’s spokesperson Nkosana Zali the disruptions are part of an upgrading project that was budgeted for by the Executive Mayor Calvin Koketso Seerane in June in terms of which the municipality would spend about R164 million in the next three years to enhance the provision of water and sanitation services to the community of the city.
“We are pleased to announce that the bypass has been done successfully, and the reservoir emptied and resealed. Water is being provided via the bypass,” says Zali.
“The drained reservoir was very revealing though. It showed that maintenance on the reservoir was long overdue and if the municipality had not taken these steps the situation for residents would have been dire.”
He says the resealing of the reservoir was halted by a few complications.
“The resealing project was aided by the rainfall after complications visited on the technical team by the severity of the damages on the reservoir and the Johannesburg electricity strike that also came into the equation.”
He confirms that the latter affected their supply from Rand Water while rainfall, even though it interrupted the work, reduced water demand especially for swimming pools.
“We are busy drying the base of the reservoir and using alternative methods to allow the sealant to cure quickly. Then a process of disinfection will commence, which involves half-filling of the reservoir followed by our water scientists taking samples of the water for tests over a period of 48 hours. When the water quality meets required standards, then the reservoir will be re-commissioned by Friday 29 November.”
Zali says in the meanwhile they will keep water tanks at the various supply points until the situation is back to normal.
“We are also urging residents to use water sparingly because the bypass supply is not enabled to provide optimum levels of water to all.
“We are also in high-level talks with Rand Water about erratic supply of water to Mogale City so that the re-commissioning occurs with as less disruptions as is possible.”
He says the municipality understands the frustration that residents have.
“Though customer queries have reduced significantly as both low and high lying areas received consistent supply of water, whilst other households experienced low pressure especially in high demand periods such as in the morning and over weekends, the municipality is empathetic to the plight of all affected residents. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
He says the long-term objective of this intervention is to ensure high quality water supply to residents as well as to curb or curtail water losses.
