Jeff Moloi
Buffalo City Metro says it will introduce night-time water cuts between 10 pm and 4 am in a bid to build up the water storage capacity for the high lying areas after recent floods severely affected the city's water infrastructure.
Executive Mayor Xola Pakati, said on Thursday that the flash floods on the 8th of January, not only severely impacted parts of Mdantsane and Duncan Village, but also the city's water infrastructure.
He said it also affected the extent of the Umzonyana Water Treatment Works, to treat and release water into the distribution system from the Bridle Drift Dam.
“Because the system is taking longer to fully recover due to the high water demand, the City has had to consider the situation holistically,” Pakati said.
He said Buffalo City was implementing a number of mitigation plans to recover the Umzonyana Water Supply System, including the provision of water tankers to assist the affected areas.
"We have brought on board an external expert to advise on solutions in order to stabilise the system. We will cut water supply between 22h00 and 04h00 every evening to build up the storage for the high lying areas, and this will be implemented until this system sufficiently recovers,” Pakati said.
The mayor said this would not affect all areas of the Metro.
“We want to apologise to all residents of our metro for this situation. As the political leadership of the institution, we will be monitoring the water challenge daily and we will give regular updates to the residents of the affected areas up until the water distribution system is to the requisite standard,” he said.
Meanwhile, the nigh-time cuts were introduced on Wednesday and will resume on Friday, according to Buffalo City spokesperson, Samnkelo Ngwenya.
He also said they were also “advising people not to consume water that is not clear.”
“If the water is murky or of different colour, we are advising people not to consume that water. It would be advisable to boil that water, but also most importantly you can also wait as the water in your taps will clear after a while,” he added.
