The City of Tshwane says the restoration of the water supply in some areas has begun. This follows a week of dry taps as a result of an explosion at Rand Water’s Palmiet booster pump station in Alberton on Sunday.
On day six, some businesses such as Grace Anane’s hair salon -had to close shop because of insufficient supply from water tankers.
“We don’t have any water to wash them so if they come and want to do their hair we can’t even plait them because we have to wash them. We are struggling.”
Residents are equally frustrated. They say there’s no communication on where to access water tankers, making it almost impossible for them to get water.
“We are running around for water, we’re old. Please help us. Our government is treating us bad and tomorrow they’ll come back here campaigning for votes, ” says a frustrated resident.
” They are treating us badly, kids are sick and can’t go to the toilet. There’s the coronavirus, we need to wash our hands regularly,” adds another resident.
On Wednesday, staff at Kgabo Clinic in Mabopane threatened to strike after having had no water for the whole day.
The 24-hour clinic is among the busiest in the region.
The Public Servants Association of South Africa’s Olivia Mashigo says staff can’t continue to work under these conditions.
“They’ve got a maternity facility as well there. Some people came in and one lady came in to give birth and this is in a situation where there’s no water. In the same environment, you have children coming in also with accidents. Our biggest concern was that lack of water in the middle of a third wave is a disaster.”
By Saturday afternoon, the City of Tshwane confirmed some areas had water again.
“I can confirm that in some parts of the city, we have received reports of water that is flowing from the taps even though the pressure is low. We heard had about Laudium region 4, some parts of Ga Rankuwa in region 1 as well as some parts of Mabopane and Soshanguve. We anticipate according to Rand Water that they will complete the repairs to their pump station by tomorrow but at least we are beginning to see some progress,” says the City spokesperson, Selby Bokaba.
The Cty has appealed for patience while work to restore the water supply takes place. It says it will continue to dispatch water tankers until the supply is fully restored.
Deepening water crisis in Soshanguvhe:
Meanwhile, some residents in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria claim they are being charged for water from tankers, amid ongoing outages.
The City of Tshwane dispatched tankers to affected areas following an explosion at Rand Water’s Palmiet Booster Pumping Station in Alberton earlier this week.
The City has urged residents to report the tanker drivers, that are exploiting the water crisis.
