Old pipelines the major cause for water shortages

Water shortages that are affecting areas of Ikageng, Promosa and certain part of town for numerous days is largely due to ancient and fragile network supply pipe infrastructure.

According to J.B. Marks municipal spokesperson, Jeanette Tshite, the municipality has conducted thorough investigations within the water supply system and identified one of the roots of the problem.

“Our network supply pipes are ancient, fragile and located in remote areas of our municipality which creates accessibility challenges. These conditions elongated the fact finding into the challenge of water supply inefficiency, but we have finally identified what could be the main root cause in the network of our water supply shortages in Ikageng and surrounding areas,” explained Tshite in a statement.

She further added that the pipeline is clearly losing a substantial amount of water and leaks are  impacting the municipality’s ability to fill the Ventersdorp Road Reservoirs which supply all regions west of the Mooi River in the Potchefstroom region. The municipality has started working on the pipeline since Tuesday, 2 April.

“The shutdown of the main line will have a detrimental effect on water supply and thus we have opted for a controlled and reducing pumping which results in water restrictions at Ikageng during the construction process. This will unfortunately extend restrictions that have already been communicated and this is to allow for a safer and speedy construction repairs of the line with limited available options which are not ruled out during the construction to minimize the impact.”

For now, a residents should restrict their water usage and keep extra water for household storage. Severely affected areas will have water tankers to supply residents with water.

We respectfully request cooperation of all residents of the Municipality during this challenging time.
As JB Marks Local Municipality we sincerely regret any difficulty this may cause and reassure residents that we will make every effort to finish the required repairs as soon as possible to minimize any delays. We anticipated an improved water supply in the impacted areas of Ikageng and Promosa once the water leaks on the main pipe supply have been attended to,” added Tshite.

For any related queries or needs for assistance, the Technical Services Directorate can be contacted at 018 299 5408.