Water panic in Kimberley

Patsy Beangstrom

Own Correspondent

KIMBERLEY: The water situation in Kimberley is critical and, by yesterday afternoon, the larger dams at the Newton reservoir were basically empty, resulting in the high-lying parts of the city not having any water or only a trickle.

An emergency press conference was called by the municipal manager, Goolam Akharwaray, who tried to dispel fears by reiterating that while the city was able to supply water, the problem was only with the building of reserves at the Newton reservoir.

This was little consolation to the many residents who live in the high-lying areas of the city and rely on the levels at the Newton reservoir being sufficiently high enough to activate the pumps.

Low-lying parts of the city are less affected as they receive water in the system via gravity feed.

In a desperate attempt to build up the levels at the reservoir, the municipality announced yesterday that water would be cut every night throughout the city from 10pm until 5am.

“The plan is twofold – on the one hand we will maintain water within the network by pumping directly into the system from the one pipe coming from Riverton, while the other pipe will be used to pump into the dams at the Newton reservoir in order to build the reserves up again,” Akharwaray said.

By yesterday afternoon, the levels at the two smaller dams at Newton reservoir were about 1.52m, while the two larger dams were essentially empty and gauges showed less than 609.6mm of water.

Akharwaray explained that in order to build up the reserves as soon as possible, the dams would be isolated and the municipality would first try to build up the water level in the smaller dams.

“The level needs to be at 2.4m in order to activate the pumps supplying water to the high-lying areas. We are hoping that by switching off the water to the city, the water level in the smallest dam will increase enough to ensure that people in the high-lying areas have water in the morning (today).”

Akharwaray, however, admitted that he couldn’t guarantee that all areas in the city would have water this morning or how long it would last.

“If we get the level to above 2.4m overnight, they will have water in the morning, but if it drops during the course of the day, there might not be enough pressure to supply to the high-lying areas.”

Akharwaray added it was anti-cipated that it would take about a week of cutting the water every night to build up the reserves at the Newton reservoir to acceptable levels.

“We will have to monitor the situation and manage it on a daily basis to determine the most effective course of action and we will keep the public informed along the way.”

Meanwhile, an appeal has been made to all residents to use water as sparingly as possible and not to water their gardens.

Earlier on Wednesday, the municipality sent out a press release also urging residents not to use hosepipes to wash their cars – except for formalised commercial car washes, not to fill their pools until the situation had normalised, and to shower rather than take a bath if possible.

Residents were also asked to share showers “where it is hygienically safe to do so”.

Akharwaray, meanwhile, reassured the public that the work done at the weekend, which was aimed at improving the management of the water in the system, as well as the supply to the city, had been successful and had gone according to plan.

He added that an unforeseen delay of about 30 hours in the completion of the work, together with residents using large volumes of water once the supply was restored, had resulted in the current crisis situation.

Among the problems experienced during the weekend’s shutdown included the fact that it took far longer than expected to drain all the water out of the system, as well as a problem with the alignment of the pipes.

“On Sunday morning when we switched on the smaller 650mm pipe, there was a jerk effect as the water came through, resulting in the steel pipe bending.

“That alerted the team to the possibility of a similar problem with the 950mm pipe and it was decided to build a truss to support the pipe, rather than take a chance and possibly have to start everything over.

“The total delay was, therefore, about 30 hours, which meant that we were not able to pump sufficient water into the dams at the Newton reservoir.

“Although the two largest dams at the reservoir were full when the water was restored, the first dam was completely drained in order to fill the empty reticulation system.

“Meanwhile, because we were still not able to use the 950mm pipe, the amount of water being pumped from Riverton was insufficient to meet the demand on Monday. A decision was taken to use the reserve water in the second dam because it was felt we couldn’t leave residents without water for another day.”

While the reserves in the dams were reported to be at 2.4m on Monday night, these were quickly depleted.

“I must give the assurance, however, that although the current reserves are depleted, the municipality’s capacity to supply residents with water is intact,” Akharwaray said.

The planned shutdowns from 10pm until 5am will continue until the dams at the reservoir have reached comfortable levels, which, based on a similar situation a few years ago, was about seven days.

However, this could not be confirmed and was dependent on how frugal residents were with their water usage.

It was also pointed out that it is far hotter currently and the evaporation levels are far greater.

Irate residents lashed out at the municipality for placing the blame for the lack of water on their excessive use of the resource and pointed out that a lack of proper communication had played a far greater role in plunging the city’s water supply into a crisis situation.

“According to the municipality, the levels at the Newton reservoir were normal and there was no talk of water restrictions once the water had been restored.

“If people had known that the levels were very low, they would have used water more sparingly, but this was never properly communicated,” said one resident.

She questioned why radio stations were not used to communicate to people not to use water where possible.

The municipality’s telephone system was also down yesterday.

“We tried to find out why we had no water, but we couldn’t get through to anyone and the phone lines were dead. If we knew what was happening, we would not be so frustrated, but now it just seems like all the good work that was done over the weekend has gone to waste.

“I’m not surprised that not many reports were received of residents not having water – it is because no one could get through to complain,” another resident said.

Municipal spokesperson Thoko Riet confirmed that there was a faulty switch on the switchboard and added that the supplier was fixing the problem.