Hope for Verulam residents as water woes could end

The Verulam Water Crisis Committee is hopeful that water woes in the area will end in the coming days.

This follows a war room meeting with the South African Human Rights Commission, municipal officials, experts and members of the committee on Wednesday morning.

Roshan Lil-Ruthan, a member of the committee, said Trenance Park was without water for seven months.

“Trenance Park’s water comes from the Mountview Reservoir, which is the main reservoir receiving supply from Durban Heights. Recently the contracted volumes from Umgeni uThukela to eThekwini have significantly slowed down and has limited the supply of water to the Mountview Reservoir,” said Lil-Ruthan.

He said this automatically impacted on the Trenance Park 1 and Trenance Park 2 reservoirs.

“This is the worst affected area with 12 streets being left without water.”

Lil-Ruthan said at the meeting the committee reiterated the challenges in Trenance Park.

“The decision taken from the meeting was that a dedicated team of engineers, hi-tech plumbers and electricians will be deployed for the rest of this week and next week to work at the towers and reservoirs to augment the supply to that area.”

He said the challenge was if the water supply was still restricted from Umgeni uThukela to the Mountview Reservoir it would hamper efforts.

“At the meeting, Umgeni uThukela said they would ensure that the contracted volumes of megalitres are dispatched to the northern aqueduct to ensure the exercise was successful.”

Lil-Ruthan said if they got a steady supply into the Mountview Reservoir, water could be pumped to Trenance Park 3.

“If we can sustain that for at least two days, I am sure by the third day we will be able to get water supplied to the affected roads.”

He said there was a major shutdown today for areas from Grange to Mountview.

Lil-Ruthan said the Grange Reservoir supplied the Verulam CBD, Waterloo, Everest Heights, Redcliff and Buffelsdraai.

“The final tie-in of an aqueduct from Hazlemere to Grange is being completed today and by midnight on Thursday that work and welding would be completed. This will ensure that a larger volume of water from the Hazelmere Treatment Works reaches the Grange Reservoir. If successful, the water woes of residents living in these areas would end. We are hopeful.”

The POST

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