NATIONAL NEWS - Residents and businesses are bracing themselves for planned water shutdowns this coming week to accompany the rolling blackouts the city is already experiencing due to load shedding.
Last week the city issued a communique entitled “Western aqueduct water supply system interruption,” in which it outlined the planned shutdown for the entire affected system.
“The City would like to inform residents regarding planned water shut down for the entire Western Aqueduct system on 18 February until 19 February,” said the statement, issued by eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela.
“The main aim of the shutdown is to do a tie in of the new 800mm diameter steel main from Cato Ridge reservoir into the existing 1600mm diameter Aqueduct line.”
“To undertake this tie in, the City is compelled to completely drain the aqueduct since the operation involves mainly steel welding. The system will, therefore, be completely isolated at point M custody transfer station,” the statement continued
Mayisela said that preparations for the welding and construction on the site will begin at 6 am on Tuesday, 18 February with the draining of the entire area.
“This will allow the site teams to commence work at 6 pm on the same day.”
In all, the expected duration of the shutdown will be 36 hours, from 6 am on Tuesday morning until 6 pm on Wednesday evening leaving the areas which are served by the aqueduct without water supply effectively for two whole business days.
“The City will endeavour to fill all the reservoirs affected to topwater level; however the behaviour of respective reservoirs is different and dependent on downstream demands,” said Mayisela.
The affected areas in the Highway will include the following reservoirs:
-Alverstone Nek Res Zone: which supplies water to the those in Alverstone including Alverstone North and Summerveld.
-Bothas Hill Reservoir Zone: which affects Bothas Hill and surrounding areas of Kwanyuswa, Mnamatha, Mbedlane and Magugwana
-Emoyeni Reservoir: which supplied Hillcrest, Hillcrest Hospital, Winston Park and parts of Gillitts.
-Knelsby Reservoir Zone: which supplies the Hillcrest CBD, and some other parts of Hillcrest not supplied by the Emoyeni Reservoir.
-Westriding Reservoir Zone: which supplies Embo, Westriding, Mkholombe, Kwanqetho, Mshazi, Waterfall, Crestholme and Pinkney park.
-Abelia Reservoir Zone: which supplied Kloof, Wybank and New Germany.
-Jerome Drive Reservoir Zone: which supplies Pinetown CBD and parts of New Germany.
-Emberton 1 Reservoir Zone: which supplied Kloof and Gillitts with water.
-Emberton 2 reservoir Zone: responsible for water supplies to Emberton and Kloof
Hygarth Reservoir Zone: which supplies the Westmead industrial area.
-Clubhouse Road Reservoir: which supplied Westmead Industrial and serves as a booster to Tshelimnayma.
-Tshelimnyama 3 Reservoir zone: supplying the areas of Tshelimnayma, Dassenhoek, Mpola and Pitoli.
-Kwandengezi Reservoir Zone: supplying Kwandengesi, Kwalinda and Coffee Farm.
-KwaDabeka 1 Reservoir Zone: which supplies Kwadabeka.
-Wybank Reservoir Zone: which supplies New Germany, and Wybank.
The above areas are only part of the shutdown which is expected to affect areas from Cato Ridge to Ntuzuma in the city.
The statement from the city said the supply areas affected by the shutdown will be receiving no supply during the shutdown process.
“Water tankers will be dispatched to service areas experiencing water outages during this shutdown period,” said Mayisela.
Mayisela ended off the city’s communique with the advice that all queries regarding water supply must be referred to the city’s call centre on the following numbers: 080 131 3013 or 073 148 3477.
