Waterless weekend for Empangeni residents

After taps ran dry in parts of Empangeni on Thursday last week, some affected areas were still without water four days later.

Affected areas include Nyala Park, Panorama, Noordsig, Hillview and Extension 26.

The problem began with a major breakdown at the Pearce Crescent pump station due to a leaking pipe.

Ward 23 Councillor Andre de Lange said the repair required specific couplings, which had to be sourced from Pietermartizburg.

“They installed them, but from then on we had problems with the pumps at Pearce Crescent reservoir,” said De Lange.

This led to problems filling the Magazulu reservoir, which supplies a normal flow to the community and businesses.

“That’s our main problem, the Pearce Crescent supply to Magazulu reservoir,” confirmed De Lange.

The City of uMhlathuze stepped in to deliver affected areas with water via tankers at the weekend.

De Lange was all hands on deck helping his community by directing tankers to affected areas – a struggle that continued on Monday morning at the Empangeni Fire Department.

The problem affected the schooling of young learners, with Empangeni Preparatory having to send learners home at 10am on Friday.

Meanwhile, Heuwelland Primary School experienced a water outage on Monday and asked its 1 053 learners to stay home, as holding that number of pupils would have been a sanitation issue.

On Tuesday morning, De Lange said the issue was still being attended to.

He said some areas had started receiving water but not the higher-lying areas.

“Some areas in the CBD and even Queen Nandi Hospital, still lack water supply,” said De Lange.

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