The water level in Hoedspruit has returned to a stable condition after it rose to 80%. This is after pipes at the reservoir supplying Hoedspruit town and situated in the Air Force Base burst. “The pipes at the reservoir are 135 cm wide, so it gushed out a large amount of water and caused the water levels to decrease. We experience challenges with pumping water for the Hoedspruit community when the water level is low,” said Col Enrico Gherbavaz, acting commanding officer of the Air Force Base in Hoedspruit.

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He posted an urgent communication to Hoedspruit residents on social media saying they had to close down the water supply. “The ongoing water crisis is reaching a critical point,” he posted on social media. “We are struggling to raise the reservoir levels. On October 13, the level was at 0% hence the water supply was closed, and on October 21, the level was at 5%. Unfortunately, we were forced to implement a water-shedding schedule to ensure everyone would get water without a permanent loss of supply and damages to pumps,” he said

The measures continued until last week Friday which implied a shutdown of water between 22:00 and 04:00. “We requested residents to not water their gardens until the water supply reaches a safe manageable level. The situation was further affected by the throttling of the water supply at certain times from the Blyde Dam water management,” he said. He also added that they are not sure as to how long the repair work that was carried out, will last. He said a permanent solution for the pipes is needed. Herald contacted the Maruleng Local Municipality and Mopani District Municipality who said that they are not aware of the water-shedding problems in Hoedspruit.