Water expected to return after 3-day maintenance project
Water expected to return after 3-day maintenance project
Households affected by the planned water outage on the Cape Flats water network are expected to have their water restored on Thursday after three days of work done.
This was despite a delay due to safety and security challenges on the first day of operations.
Water was to return at midnight last night after six valves were replaced.
On Wednesday evening, Mayco member for Water and Sanitation Zahid Badroodien said as they closed in on the final stages of the critical replacement work, all six valves had been replaced and were responding positively to the pressure testing.
The final two valves were replaced at the corners of Blackbird Avenue and Acacia Road in Parkwood.
Badroodien said the project had been slightly delayed on the first day due to security concerns but did not divulge further details.
Badroodien said teams continued stress-testing of the valves and pipes and residents affected by the outage confirmed that water supply had returned to their areas.
Residents in Marina da Gama, Seawinds, Vrygrond, Costa da Gama, Muizenberg East, Steenberg, Coniston Park, Sharedon Park, Lavender Hill, Allenby Estate, confirmed water had returned to their taps.
“This is a slow and very precise process so that unnecessary pressures don’t cause consequential pipe bursts or leaks to the locations that we’ve been working in. Some communities have already started to report that they have water in their taps and this is very exciting news to hear. We have one team remaining doing the replacement. We do not anticipate any delays and at the end of these 72 hours residents will have low pressures in their pipes,” said Badroodien.
The three-day operation was done to “ensure that the City’s pipe infrastructure is in the best possible condition for years to come”.
A multi-departmental Disaster Coordinating Team (DCT) had been set up for the duration to closely coordinate and monitor the various aspects of the operation. Additionally to the Water and Sanitation’s efforts, other teams included Disaster Risk Management, Law Enforcement, Traffic Services, Metro Police, Public Participation and Corporate Communications.
Cape Times