There is an end in sight to the water crisis that has been affecting residents in Bronkhorstspruit and surrounding areas for weeks.
This comes after the City of Tshwane promised to restore water to residents following last week’s protests over water outages caused by the pump breakdown at the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Plant.
On Friday, the City’s executive met with the Gauteng MEC for local government, Mzi Khumalo, and a representative from the Department of Water and Sanitation over water outages that have plagued the area for weeks.
Municipal spokesperson Selby Bokaba said parties discussed water supply challenges in Region 7 during the interaction and also exchanged technical information.
The meeting, he said, expressed satisfaction with the plans that the city provided together with the timelines for restoring water.
Last week, the City promised to repair a broken pump at the treatment plant this week because it was still waiting for a motor required to operate the pump.
The motor was eventually delivered on Monday night and Bokaba said the installation of both the pump and motor was scheduled to take place on Tuesday.
Following the installation, the City would conduct a series of tests on the equipment “to confirm if all is in order before pumping can get under way”.
Bokaba said: “Some of the areas in Region 7 have been beset by water outages following the breakdown of a pump, although supply has been interchangeably restored in mostly low-lying areas through the balancing of the system to ensure an equitable distribution of water to all residents, except in the high-lying areas of Ekangala and Rethabiseng.”
He said the metro had observed that the balancing of the system intervention brought some relief to parts of Region 7.
The City continued to provide water tankers to the affected areas as a temporary relief measure.
Bokaba said: “If the test results come out positive, restoration of water supply to the affected areas is expected to commence, and more areas will start receiving water due to the increased pumping capacity from Wednesday (yesterday) onwards.”
He assured residents that plans were on track to restore water supply to them.
“The City understands the frustration that the residents have had to endure for a considerable period of time and appreciates their patience during this very difficult period,” he said.
On the other hand, the City was embarking on erecting a new fence around the plant to better secure the plant against criminal elements bent on sabotage and arson.
Pretoria News