Pretoria – Rand Water has restricted water supply to the City of Tshwane after residents failed to heed the call to use water sparingly.
At the weekend, several areas were without water and had to rely on water trucks to fill in their buckets.
The water restriction comes after residents were urged last week to use water sparingly as there was a concern about possible shortages due to load shedding and high temperatures.
Utility services and regional operations mayoral committee member (MMC) Daryl Johnston said stage 6 load shedding presented multiple challenges – key among them was the possibility of water outages, particularly in high-lying areas.
This was because much of the city’s water and sanitation reticulation systems relied on electricity, he said. Water treatment works and pump stations needed electricity to operate.
“We have reservoirs with storage to last through short interruptions, but they rely on a continuous flow to maintain levels and be prepared for outages. That continuous flow relies on pump stations running.
“With frequent load shedding the continuous flow of water is interrupted. This means reservoirs are under significant pressure, especially high-lying reservoirs. They may slowly have their water level lowered until they threaten to run dry.”
The city has tried to exempt its water treatment works and key pump stations from load shedding, where possible, to protect the water network and ensure water keeps flowing, but it was not possible to exempt all the water network systems that require electricity.
“Should load shedding continue, water outages may occur. This is highly likely in high-lying areas, such as Laudium and Waterkloof Ridge. We ask residents to limit water usage, as we are in a water-scarce area and already at level 1 water restrictions.”
Rand Water said the hot weather had led to an increase in water demand and storage in its reservoirs had been rapidly declining.
IOL