Kimberley residents brace themselves for another water shutdown

Kimberley residents are bracing themselves for another water shutdown. This is the second shutdown by the Sol Plaatje Municipality since March.

In March residents were without water for five days due to infrastructure upgrades.

The planned cuts will start on Thursday night and will resume through to Friday afternoon. Some residents were not aware of the planned water cuts.

Alfred Tire says: “I didn’t know about water cuts. But I will make a plan, possibly filling up my containers with water.”

Victolina Tatazela adds:  “I’m glad you came to tell us that there will be no water, we are really happy. But we will make a plan to get water”.

The municipality says it cannot guarantee if the scheduled work will be concluded timeously.

Sol Plaatje Municipality Spokesperson Sello Matsie says: “We are not anticipating this really being a long operation. The main thing is always when to drain the water from the system. The actual work itself shouldn’t really take more than half a day, but because sometimes we are forced to wait to try as we scour out the water as we pump it out that is actually the main thing that will drag the process. In this case that is why we are shutting water today and we will not be pumping water into the pipeline to reduce the amount of water inside the pipeline itself.”

The March water shutdown led to the closure of shops, government offices and schools.

Meanwhile the health department says they have put contingency plans in place and all their facilities will be operating normally.