Residents across Kramat, Macassar Beach and Sandvlei faced yet another frustrating water outage on Monday (10 August), marking the latest setback in an ongoing infrastructure breakdown that sparked community protests and tyre burning late last week.

A formal alert issued by the City of Cape Town at 09:00 on Monday revealed that maintenance teams from the Water and Sanitation Directorate were once again conducting emergency repairs on a valve along the 250 mm-diameter bulk pipeline feeding the Macassar Reservoir.

Acknowledging the severe inconvenience caused by repeated supply losses, the City deployed emergency water tankers – one stationed at Beach Road in Kramat and another roaming Sandvlei – to deliver basic relief. Municipal officials advised residents to keep taps closed during the repair period and to flush outside taps for 30 seconds once water returned.

Affected residents reported that water supply was restored by late afternoon.

Reacting to the latest disruption, community leader Maryam Salie noted on Monday that residents had endured “Day 8 without water in less than a two-week cycle”.

“We are opting for a long-term solution,” Salie said, and all formal communications had been lodged with authorities. “Happy Women’s Day to all the women who have always been in the forefront of fights over unforgiving exclusion.”

The latest outage comes on the heels of escalating community outrage.

Last Thursday (6 August) frustrated residents took to the streets and burnt tyres in protest over the persistent lack of basic-service delivery.

The disruption on 10 August follows an earlier four-day outage, where water was only briefly restored last Tuesday evening (4 August), following a series of pipeline failures.

Addressing criticism from local activists, including Salie and Christiaan Stewart, the Mayoral Committee member for Water and Sanitation, Zahid Badroodien, detailed a sequence of distinct incidents that have dogged the same 250 mm bulk line, including faulty valves, pipe bursts and new leaks.

The City became aware of each incident as it occurred and dispatched maintenance teams to investigate and do the repairs.

He added that while the failures occurred within a short timeframe they involved separate incidents rather than a single unresolved fault.

Despite the restoration of supply community representatives maintained that temporary repairs and water tankers were no longer acceptable.

Badroodien confirmed the City is planning a permanent upgrade, with plans underway to replace the aging 250 mm water main feeding the reservoir, subject to funding availability.

Community leaders reiterated they will continue pressing municipal authorities for formal engagements on broader, long-standing service-delivery concerns, including local connections to the nearby wastewater treatment facility.