Pretoria - Residents in Tshwane have, for now, been spared another water outage after Rand Water announced its cancellation of a 30-hour shutdown of supply due to planned maintenance.
This comes after residents were last week informed the water utility’s team of technicians would conduct repairs on leaks at the Zuikerbosch Water Treatment Plant.
In anticipation of the shutdown the municipality had promised to fill the reservoirs before minimising its impact on residents.
The Palmiet booster station would have reduced pumping to 75% of its capacity during the shutdown, affecting Rand Water reservoirs such as Klipriviersberg, Klipfontein, Brakfontein and Hartebeesthoek, including various areas across Tshwane.
According to Rand Water, the network system would have taken at least two weeks to stabilise.
Of late, constant water supply interruptions have become common in Tshwane, with the municipality blaming Rand Water for failing to articulate supply challenges on time.
Last week residents in Soshanguve and Mabopane had their fair share of water outages for days because of low water flow into region one reservoirs.
Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink has repeatedly criticised Rand Water for failing to notify the municipality beforehand about its water supply problems.
In the case of Soshanguve, Rand Water had promised to supply water through a bypass method during its maintenance work carried out at its Haartebeeshoek reservoir since the week of July 12.
However, the parastatal experienced “challenges” with its a bypass method, resulting in an outage and due to inadequate water flow into the Soshanguve Block L reservoirs, among other reservoirs in region one.
In a television interview, however, Rand Water chief operating officer, Mahlomola Mehlo, said it was not true that the municipality was being kept in the dark about water supply issues at the water utility.
Pretoria News