- A severe pipe burst along Faure Marine Drive in Gordon’s Bay disrupted water supply to thousands in the area, including Strand and Somerset West, leading to emergency repairs and community reliance on water tankers and bore-holes for several days.
- The situation escalated on Monday with protests involving tyre burning and stone-throwing by residents frustrated by the prolonged water outage.
- Repairs were completed by Monday night, and water supply was gradually restored by early Tuesday, with local authorities and community members working together to manage the crisis and distribute water.
Council contractors worked around the clock to repair a severe pipe burst that affected thousands of households in Strand and Gordon’s Bay as well as parts of Somerset West from Saturday 8 June until the early hours of yesterday morning (Tuesday 11 June).
Armed with water bottles, buckets and jugs, long queues of crowds marched in search of water, which the City of Cape Town provided through tankers dispatched to various locations over the three days.
Some businesses with bore-holes, the Gordon’s Bay Islamic Society as well as private individuals, also assisted hundreds of people with water supply.
Some frustrations, however, reached boiling point on Monday evening when infuriated residents took to the streets in protest, burning tyres and objects to obstruct arterial roadways, and hurling stones at vehicles in Broadlands and Gustrouw. Some motorists reported minor damage to vehicles as a result.
It all started when disaster struck on Saturday morning when a pipe burst was reported along Faure Marine Drive in Gordon’s Bay, near the intersection with Hibiscus Road, where water was seen flowing from the tar road.
Severe pipe burst
When a truck’s wheels got lodged in a sinkhole directly above the water leak it was realised that the pipe burst was actually a severe one that affected a 760 mm bulk water main pipe.
“Initially, teams attempted to isolate the affected area by shutting valves as close to the burst as possible,” Councillor Zahid Badroodien, the City’s Mayoral Committee member for Water and Sanitatsion stated following what appeared to be delay after delay in restoring the water supply. “Unfortunately, this did not control the flow of water adequately, which required additional valve closures leading to a greater area being impacted.
“Another delay was experienced on site as the couplings available to the team were not of the correct size. This led to another six-hour delay as the engineering team needed to build a new set of couplings from scratch.”
He explained that, as a result of the large diameter of the pipe, some time was required to drain the hole to reach the pipe, further complicated by the need to widen the area by closing additional valves.
By Monday afternoon (10 June) the entire Gordon’s Bay was without water as well as parts of Strand, Somerset West and Sir Lowry’s Pass.
Water points established
A water distribution point at a business in the Gants Plaza, Proplant Stainless Streel, among others, also served hundreds of litres of water to an estimated 700 people on Monday morning. One of the representatives, Michelle Roberts-Baxter, said a few youngsters carrying buckets walked past the premises and asked if they could get some water. “We helped them and slowly other people noticed and started lining up outside. We tried to assist as many people as we could,” she said.
Residents also expressed acknowledgement of City employees working hard at the site throughout the ordeal, and commended the regular communication from the City, which provided updates every few hours, and apologised every time for the inconvenience.
Badroodien confirmed reports of protest action around Broadlands on Monday evening was due to residents being unhappy that they had not received water, and that later the evening a water tanker was dispatched to the area under the supervision of police.
Work on the pipe repairs was completed by 22:00 on Monday night, and water began to be restored one area at a time by the early hours of Tuesday, much to the relief of the community. “Thank you to all residents for your patience through this period without water,” Badroodien stated.
