The Editor,
On Saturday afternoon, myself and my neighbours in Paul Street in Moreleta Park saw our taps run dry for the second time in a week. The previous dry spell started last week Monday (October 19) and lasted for almost a week. Almost an entire week of sitting and waiting for the Elardus Park reservoir to fill up, fed by an apparently ailing Garsfontein reservoir.
What is the reason for the outage, you may ask? Well, if you find out please let us residents know as well because we are sitting in the dark. At one stage on Sunday, we were told it was because we were using too much water and so the municipality and Rand Water had to ‘throttle’ our usage. Funny thing is we didn’t have any water to use. Then we were told it was as a result of maintenance at Rand Water’s Vlakfontein plant. To this day, I cannot tell you or anyone with certainty why our taps are currently dry.
How is it possible that communication for one area can be shared so quickly while an area such as ours in Elardus Park is just kept in the dark?
The ward councillors in our area share the little information they have but it seems the drought in terms of information, much like the one in our taps, starts at the very top – the Tshwane metro. Updates are issued on social media for every area except ours. Do they even know we don’t have water at this stage?
Last week, we had to wait for Garsfontein reservoir to reach 40% capacity before we could get water pumped to Elardus Park. We were told by the very few who had information to share. Today, we are waiting once again after they allegedly started pumping water on Saturday. How long will this take? Well, according to reports it’s taking long because the minute someone gets water, they then start using too much of it. It’s like filling a bucket with holes at the bottom, so you can fill a second bucket from the first, also with its own holes. Surely, this is not the optimum way for a municipal water supply system to function?
I know that other areas are also affected. I know that some have water but question whether it is smart for them to drink it as it might be contaminated. But we as residents are fed up with the way things are going and given that it will only get hotter as the summer progresses, I think I speak for many when I say I am dreading the weeks ahead.
Barend Stander
