Over a 75-hour period starting on Friday last week, maintenance teams attached to the City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Directorate worked around the clock to complete the maintenance work on the bulk water pipeline.
The maintenance resulted in no water or low water pressure.
Pelican Heights, Peacock Close, and Schaapkraal were the only identified areas to have no water at all, with water tankers stationed in these areas.
Other areas affected by low water pressure included Brown’s Farm/Philippi, Eagle Park, Grassy Park, Khayelitsha Site C, Hanover Park, Lavender Hill, Lotus River, Manenberg, Mitchell’s Plain, Muizenberg, Mxolisi Phetani, Ottery, Parkwood, Retreat, Seawinds, Steenberg, Strandfontein, Surrey Estate, Vrygrond, Wetton and Zeekoevlei.
However, residents outside these boundries, including areas such as Plumstead experienced water supply issues.
Tafelsig resident Berenice Sonday says they were informed by their ward councillor about disruptions, and made plans for the shortage, but not enough for an entire outage.
“We were told it would be low pressure, but that we would still have water. There were many parts of Mitchell’s Plain without water,” she says.
The same occurred in Manenberg and parts of the Athlone basin, according to readers.
Zahid Badroodien, Mayco member for water and waste, kept residents informed via video statements and picture galleries uploaded to his social media platforms.
Where possible, water was reintroduced to areas following notification of disconnection through a dedicated WhatsApp line or C3 notification.
Local councillors said they too logged calls and were inundated with requests, despite residents being informed of the reason and cause for outages.
Badroodien says in a statement that a 1 800 mm diameter valve had been replaced as part of the work. This was followed by work on a 1 500 mm diameter valve and 1 200 mm diameter valve.
The necessary maintenance follows a similar preparation project earlier this year.
“The City appreciates the patience of our residents during this very trying time. As we previously indicated, this shutdown operation is the first of its kind and extent in the City, and while every effort was made to ensure that our plans accounted for as many eventualities as possible, this unfortunate impact was unexpected,” says Badroodien.
“We are very grateful to our teams for the work they’ve done in redirecting the water supply systematically, and bringing relief to affected residents. We are also equally grateful for the patience displayed and cooperation from our residents in the affected areas.”
