Parts of metro without water again, sabotage to reservoir suspected

FOR the second weekend in a row, suburbs in Nelson Mandela Bay were without water, in some cases owing to suspected sabotage, as an overtime dispute between the municipality and workers continued.

The weekend before, large parts of the metro were without water as designated municipal staff refused to work on weekends without extra pay, with residents in a frenzy.

Taps in Kwazakhele, Govan Mbeki and New Brighton ran dry between Friday night and Saturday morning, while residents in much of Lorraine were without water on the Sunday.

The municipality laid a complaint with the police last week after a valve had been closed in Govan Mbeki township.

Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip had said a new overtime policy had been introduced – and some staff were refusing to work beyond regular business hours. Yesterday, municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said supply to Zwide was reestablished on Saturday, at about 7.30pm, after an outage caused by two water main supplies which had burst.

The water supply to the Despatch reservoir was interrupted, allegedly as a result of valves that were closed.

“These water valves were found yesterday and reopened,” Mniki said. “Flow to much of the town was restored.

“However, a large portion of Despatch remains without water. Bothasrus, Campher Park and Heuwelkruin are affected.

“The cause of the outage is being investigated and as soon as there is clarity, repairs will commence. Water tankers have been deployed to the area.”

Mniki said the water supply to areas 8 to 10 (around Bucwa Street) in KwaNobuhle was still not functional by last night and the cause was unknown.

“We are grateful for the patience of most residents.”