Metro working hard to fully restore water supply in east

The Tshwane metro is working hard to restore water supply to Mooikloof, Tygervalley Country and Leeuwenhof estates which are the remaining areas still affected by water-outages.

MMC for utilities and regional operations Themba Fosi said his department has been at work throughout the weekend to restore supply.

“I have been out on-site at reservoirs and pump stations with officials and affected community members.

“I can confirm that almost all areas have water restored and our reservoirs have sufficient supply to maintain provision to most areas,” Fosi said.

“However, we are aware of a few remaining estates that continue to experience water challenges and we are working with management and ward councillors to resolve these.”

Fosi said the department is focusing on taking actions to prepare for or prevent future outages.

“This extended outage was unprecedented as we have never had a situation where the supply from Rand Water was completely shut down for over three days,” Fosi said.

“Previously, we have had partial supply issues or the supply outages had been shorter.

“We are looking at the functioning of various pump stations in areas like Mooikloof and Carina to boost the resilience of our system,” he said.

“Where a fix is needed, we are prioritising that. Where an upgrade is needed, we are looking at securing the budget to enable such.

“Within our system we are looking at areas we can strengthen to maximise our ability to use the existing supply we have.”

Fosi said the metro is working on building a viable relationship with the main water supplier Rand Water.

“The reality is that the majority of Tshwane’s water is supplied by Rand Water, and we are looking to strengthen our relationship and communication with them.

“We need an open and transparent line of active communication so that we can best respond to any future challenges.

Fosi said he met with Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation David Mahlobo last week Friday on-site at Rand Water’s reservoirs to sensitise the national government about Tshwane’s water situation.

“I must thank the deputy minister for coming on short notice and for his proactive stance on this issue.”

The Tshwane mayor and Rand Water CEO are also expected to meet over the water woes.

“I organised a meeting for today with our mayor, Cilliers Brink and CEO of Rand Water Sipho Masai and his management team.

“It is critical for the new administration under our mayor to have a close working relationship with Rand Water,” Fosi said.

“We appreciate the opportunity to build this relationship to best protect the interest of Tshwane residents moving forward.

“We will continue to work to finalise the remaining outages and to ensure that our city is as water resilient as possible in the future,” Fosi concluded.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram