(Archive photo: Unsplash)
Faucets in parts of Tshwane, especially to the east of Pretoria, may dry up again.
The Mapleton pumping station – which supplies Pretoria East and surrounding areas with water – suffered power cuts again at the weekend.
Rhewal used to report that thousands of residents of the capital had to do without a drop of water for almost a week last month due to power problems at Rand Water.
Themba Fosi, Tshwane’s mayoral committee member for utilities, says the city has been in discussions with Rand Water since the outages began.
“The first outage was resolved relatively quickly, but late last night we received the notification that the power had gone out again. This meant that no water could be pumped.”
According to Fosi, the electricity supply was apparently restored to the Mapleton pumping station at 02:24 on Monday morning and it has been operating at full steam since then.
However, the interruptions led to very low levels of the Rand Water reservoirs, specifically the Bronberg as well as Vlakfontein 1 and 2 reservoirs.
“Some areas in Tshwane are likely to experience low to no water pressure while the reservoirs are being refilled,” says Fosi.
“We apologize for this inconvenience and will continue to work to resolve the ongoing water challenges in Pretoria East and surroundings.”
Cilliers Brink, executive mayor of Pretoria, has meanwhile asked for more information about Rand Water’s intended waterproofing test. The tests are planned for five days, from 12 to 17 May.
Tshwane asked to fill up the reservoirs to limit any adverse effects the tests may have on the city’s water supply. However, the power outages hamper these preparation efforts.
The city says it will provide more details about the outages over time. In the meantime, residents are again asked to use water sparingly.
