Water crisis in Makana may take a week to fix
Makana residents have been without water the whole weekend and normality is not expected to return for days to come — but several surrounding communities say their problems began weeks ago.
The supply interruption began on Thursday evening. The municipality’s communications office posted a statement on its Facebook page explaining that fixing the problem could take a week.
The reason was given as the failure of a gasket at the James Kleynhans water treatment works pump station, which flooded the power station.
“Our team tried to save the situation but unfortunately could not win. As a result, our Botha’s Hill reservoirs are down, leading to water supply challenges. We are not sure of the extent of the problem yet, but it will take us a few days, maybe a week, to fully restore water supply,” reads the post.
Residents reacted with remarks such as: “In upper Vukani, there has been no water for about three weeks; can we please be provided with water tanks or Jojo Tanks?”
“In Hlalani we don’t have water. It’s been three weeks; only a few houses have water. We are struggling. Residents must take action against this municipality; enough is enough.”
Asanda Twani from Joza location told the Dispatch that he was about to do laundry on Friday but then discovered there was no water. “The municipality only posts messages of water problems on its Facebook page. You can’t even prepare. What about those who don’t have internet access?”
In Enkanini informal settlement residents said they normally used the few communal taps. Now they relied on water tanks donated by Gift of the Givers last year when lockdown started. There are only a few water tanks and all the residents depend on them when there are water outages.
Lindokuhle Mpati said the municipality did not go around and inform residents when there was a water problem.
“I’m not surprised by this. It is a common thing that water cuts happen without informing residents. Their pump stations always have problems. We are used to this now,” said Mpati.
On Saturday the municipality posted an update and said the status at the pump station had improved slightly. It said they had successfully managed to contain and drain the water from the pump station. But to start pumping they needed the motor service providers to come from Johannesburg and align their backup motor.
“This part of the job can only happen on Sunday afternoon as this service provider comes from Gauteng.
“We anticipate to be running the James Kleynhans water treatment works at half capacity from Monday morning,” said the municipality.
It’s been three weeks... We are struggling. Residents must take action against this municipality; enough is enough