A criminal waste of water – and the municipality doesn’t seem to care

MILLIONS and MILLIONS of litres of Vryheid’s, Bhekuzulu’s and Lakeside’s purified water has gone and is going to waste even as this is being written. A major pipe burst underground between the Bloemveld purification plant and the reservoirs on Vryheid Hill.
Millions of litres of pure, delicious Vryheid water is gushing from the ground and flowing across the veld in a steady stream of waste. The burst is in the veld relatively close to where the Grootgewacht road intersects the Vryheid/Paulpietersburg road.
The municipality’s Engineering Department was advised of the burst last week – twice. On Tuesday and again on Friday. On Wednesday this week water was still gushing from the ground.
One would have thought the municipality would be aware of the problem. If the purification plant treats “x” number of litres, and pumps a certain volume to the reservoirs, and the reservoirs are not rising accordingly, then it would seem obvious that there is a burst somewhere along the pipeline. One would have thought that having been advised by a concerned member of the public that there was a burst, one would imagine that pumping from the purification plant would cease.
Given the meagre rainfall this year and the level of our dams as the rainy season comes to an end, such wastage might be described as criminal.
We await comment from the municipality.