Cape Town - Residents in the Deep South are able to breathe a sigh of relief as their water is being gradually restored after a two-day outage – the second in just three weeks.
The City’s Water and Sanitation maintenance team attended to a pipe leak detected on Tuesday in Main Road, Lakeside, which affected areas including Muizenberg, Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, Deep Sun Valley, Clovelly and Masiphumelele.
Water and sanitation mayco member Zahid Badroodien said the cause of the disruption was large tree roots that dislodged the connecting collar of a 600mm-diameter water pipe.
“The City’s Water and Sanitation Directorate can confirm the water supply disruption to certain areas in the far south.
“The repairs were completed (yesterday) and water is being gradually restored to the affected areas.
“The City takes proactive measures to maintain the water pipes.
“Water pipe leaks can happen for a number of reasons. The City is committed to attending to every water disruption as soon as a service request is created and a maintenance team becomes available.”
Three weeks ago, scores of households along the southern peninsula were without water for about three days, caused by vandalism of an air valve in Blackbird Avenue, Parkwood.
This resulted in 44 schools dismissing learners early and the Cape of Good Hope SPCA appealing for donations to assist 500 animals in need of hydration.
Water tankers had to be allocated to various communities while residents waited on the water supply to be restored.
Antoinette Botes from Kalk Bay said her water was restored at about 1pm yesterday. “This is not something we are not used to, at least once a month we are sitting without water for a few days because of pipes.
“It is annoying and uncomfortable because then we need to spend money we don’t have to buy water or pay a ridiculous amount of money to have water delivered to the house.”
Muizenberg resident Heidi Goodman said her water was restored at about 11am yesterday. “They did a fantastic job. I have a borehole we used for washing and I always have a 5-litre of water in my car which we used to drink, so I am not too upset.”
The City says several sewer and water pipe replacement projects are currently under way to replace 50 000m of aged water and sanitation infrastructure.
Cape Argus