Ugu addresses water outages
The municipality is upgrading the Bhobhoyi water works to try to relieve water shortages on the South Coast.
UPON investigation, the water outages which affected some areas of the Hibiscus Coast last week were found to have been due to the very low level of Seaslopes reservoir.
At a media briefing held at the Ugu boardroom on Monday, Ugu municipal manager DD Naidoo explained that the volume of water flowing into the reservoir was not sufficient because of the leak which was detected on the main bulk pipeline from the Bhobhoyi water works. He added that there was another burst in Izotsha near Pure Venom on Sunday, May 10.
“The burst was repaired last Monday and the system was re-opened on the same day. However, realising that the system was not stabisiling, another investigation was carried out to further detect any problem which yielded the discovery of another pipe burst in Izotsha on the line supplying Shelly Beach,” explained Mr Naidoo.
General manager for water services, Lungile Cele, said all three reservoirs had dropped to 0 percent. “This made the recovery of the system an uphill battle as all the water had to fill the higher reservoirs,” she said. She added that the load-shedding made the situation even worse.
“The replenishment of water into the reservoirs took approximately five to six days. Concurrent with the southern water outages there was a massive burst that was reported in the Bhobhoyi area, which was on the northern main supplying the Umzimkhulu and Marburg reservoirs, which emptied both reservoirs,” explained Ms Cele.
She explained that as a result of Umzimkhulu being empty, areas such as Protea Park, Merlewood, Marburg, Mkholombe, Albersville, Umtwentweni, Sunwich Port, Melville, Anerley, Pumula, Woodgrange and Hibberdene were without water.
“Reservoirs recovered very well after the power was restored. However, water had to fill up Hibberdene for the system to fully recover. This has taken five to six days for a full recovery of the system,” she said.
“The municipality is currently doing upgrades at the Bhobhoyi water works, which will ensure that, during such outages, the system recovery time is shortened as a result of the upgraded pumps and capacity,” said Mr Naidoo.
