Since earlier this month, residents of the Eversdal community have had various complaints about water outages occurring at the most unexpected times.
The concern lies in the fact that no notification was sent out beforehand to allow residents to make provisions in advance.
Based on the information received by TygerBurger, water trucks have been made available during the outages, but only for cleaning purposes and not for drinking.
The City has since explained its reasoning: Its water supply network is divided into supply zones and the City can control the rate at which water flows into each supply zone through special valves. Thus, they will use this technique to ensure that national water conservation targets are met.
However, the City has since released the following statement: “The City cannot provide definite timetables for outages because the occurrence will depend on how much water people within each supply zone are using. If demand goes too high, there will not be sufficient flow to reach all properties, especially in the higher lying areas.”
“The City is working constantly to ensure that water supply remains as consistent as possible without compromising our savings targets, and we ask residents to bear with us while this work is underway,” says Mayco member for water, sanitation and energy, Xanthea Limberg.
On Monday 23 October, the City provided an update on their website explaining the outages and providing guidelines to prevent the predicament of being completely without water for the duration of the outages.
Limberg adds that the water outages, are part of the implementation of the Critical Water Shortages Management Disaster Plan. This means that water disruptions will usually occur within peak water usage times, therefore between 05:00 and 09:00 in the morning or between 17:00 and 21:00 at night. According to the information at hand, everyone should have water, but the duration of the outages will ultimately depend on how much water an area has used, she says.
“The water restriction levels should therefore be taken into account. The City provides a sufficient amount of water to areas, but if the demand is excessive, those in high-lying areas will experience water disruptions. Regardless of the inconvenience caused by water outages, the City advises everyone to store a small amount of water for drinking and basic needs in case a supply interruption occurs.
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