Residents have been without water since last week. Some homeowners have experienced a lack of water provision for at least seven days.
Jacob Lebeko, a resident from extension 7 says, “It’s been about seven days without water in extension 7; I can’t understand what’s the issue in extension 7 regarding water.” He further explained that those in the surrounding areas have running water.
In the meantime, people have been complaining about this crisis on the Dear Mayor of Potchefstroom Facebook page and on other pages. “We are going for 8 days without water. What happened to our basic right?” asked a Facebook user.
While another says that she lives with an 8-month-old baby, and suggests that it’s a challenge when she has to make food for the baby.
Jeannette Tshite, the municipality’s senior media relations officer, says that the water pumps situated at the Ventersdorp Road Reservoir have been fixed. As the parts that were ordered were installed yesterday (17 December).
According to Jeanette, water has been restored. However, excluding Extensions 7, 11 and Mohadin. “Our (the municipal’s) Directorate Technical Services is still struggling to repair a blockage in the water pipe that supplies the Sonderwater (Eersterandjie) reservoir. This blockage is impeding the filling of the reservoir,” says Jeanette.
For this reason, she says that today (18 December) there will be a water outage for at least 3 hours in Extensions 7, 11 and in Mohadin. She further says that these communities’ water will be restored once the blockage is fixed.
However, two water tankers will supply water at the affected areas, while the respective officials repair the reservoir. “Once again the municipality regrets the inconvenience caused and is doing all it can to bring the situation back to normality,” says Jeanette.
