Burst pipeline affects flow

THE water supply to the southern parts of Durban, particularly uMlazi, was affected due to a burst on Umgeni Water’s Aqueduct 2 pipeline that supplies raw water from Nagle Dam to the Durban Heights Treatment works.

The eThekwini Municipality said in a statement issued on Saturday night that the interruption would particularly affect the supply of water to uMlazi, among other areas in the south of Durban.

Aqueduct 2 burst on Thursday and, due to the repairs undertaken, water supply reached critical levels.

“Due to the repairs that were undertaken on this aqueduct, Durban Heights treatment works went critically low at 0.8m, affecting supply to all eThekwini Municipality’s aqueducts – Northern, Central, Southern aqueducts – and pumping to Mt Moriah.”

The city said high-lift pumps from Inanda Dam only started providing a slow supply of water in the early hours of Friday morning. While the water supply to all eThekwini aqueducts was interrupted, the Southern Aqueduct was the worst affected due to the minimum pressure head required to fill critical reservoirs.

These include Northdene 1 and 2, Chatsworth 1 and the most severely affected, uMlazi 2.

“To effectively fill uMlazi 2 reservoir, Durban Heights needs to be at a minimum of 4m, which unfortunately Umgeni Water are still battling to reach,” said the city.

As of midday on Saturday, the level was at 3m. The areas that are experiencing poor pressure are mainly in uMlazi 2 sections including F, G, W, H, N and C, Folweni, Nsimbini and Golokodo areas.

Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela yesterday said: “We are currently hard at work trying to build capacity at our reservoirs which are ridiculously low.”

He added that water tankers had been dispatched to the affected areas.

“We urge residents to bear with us as we are working to bring the situation to normalcy,” he said.

Umgeni Water said an update on the situation would be issued today.