POLOKWANE – Water woes for the city’s residents have continued into the new year, but Lepelle Northern Water (LNW) has urged consumers to be patient as they address a number of issues.

In a statement published today (January 13), the water utility said “all is being done to get production up and running without delay”

The statement was released to clarify current problems experienced by LNW in recent weeks. “Three major disruptions of Ebenezer Scheme operations occurred on Wednesday (January 5), Friday (January 7) and yesterday (January 12), which adversely affected water supply to Polokwane.”

According to their statement, the disruption on Tuesday has been attributed to an emergency shutdown. “The emergency shutdown was done for repairs to be conducted to the main pipeline due to a leak at Boyne. This lasted seven and a half hours since stopping the plant at 07:00 that day. Friday’s disruption of operations at the Ebenezer Scheme has been attributed to a six-hour power outage during which the plant was out of operation. The power came back on again at around 15:30,” LNW explained.

Another operational challenge halted water supply yesterday (January 12) as LNW experienced an extended power outage. “The outage caused operations to only resume last night. Simultaneously, continuous power dips on the side of the Olifantspoort Plant, that cause machinery to trip, are being experienced almost daily. When this occurs, it can take up to two hours to get operations at the plant up and running again. This situation greatly impacts on operations,” the utility said.