Nooitgedacht water restored

WATER to the Nooitgedacht treatment works has been restored, a week after the main supply line running through Kirkwood was cut off in a landslide, returning supply to Nelson Mandela Bay.

A temporary canal was opened on Wednesday shortly before 10pm, exactly seven days after the main canal, which feeds water from the Sundays River to the Scheepersvlakte Dam and Nooitgedacht, was destroyed.

Water and sanitation spokesman Sputnik Ratau thanked water users dependent on the damaged system for their patience.

“Our emergency measures are in place and the focus will now shift to finding a permanent solution,” Ratau said.

The department, with the help of the Lower Sundays River Water User Association, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and farmers, had been able to complete the temporary waterline within the planned timeframe of a week, he said.

Speaking from the construction site yesterday morning, Aquila Plant Hire and Civils contracts manager Fanus Terblanche said work on the new canal had been completed at about 7pm on Wednesday.

“Shortly after that the waterline was reopened, and the temporary section of the canal held up well. By this morning [yesterday], water was already flowing through Addo,” Terblanche said.

Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral committee member in charge of infrastructure and engineering Annette Lovemore said: “This has been an outstanding effort by the combined teams from the metro and the department.”

She said water had started running through Nooitgedacht by midnight on Wednesday.

Water would be treated at the facility and fed to the metro later today.

“Unfortunately, Despatch, Reservoir Hills and Khayamnandi were affected [yesterday], and four water tankers were deployed to these areas. No other areas were affected,” she said.

Lower Sundays River Water User Association chief executive Harms du Plessis said they were happy with the level of urgency the department of water and sanitation had displayed.

“There was great cooperation,” he said.