“Judging from the number of complaints about areas running out of water, it would seem that people are not taking the water restrictions that have been instituted seriously.”
So said Municipal Manager of the Overstrand Dean O’Neill after residents raised their concerns about this issue.
“We have also received reports of people watering gardens, washing cars and building works that continue unabated,” he said. “This leads to the water networks being emptied again, and hence empty taps will be the reality.”
O’Neill said the municipal engineers did a calculation that basically showed that should all the water networks in the Greater Hermanus be empty, as it indeed was a few days ago, as were the reservoirs, 46 MF of water is needed to fill it.
A further consequence arising from the water networks being empty is that the water is replaced by air. “When the water supply is restored, this air is compressed and escapes through the residence water meter where it creates a flow that will register on the meter, and cause the meter to tick over,” he explained. “This is normal and is generally not significant, but should it happen a number of times per day, it can become significant.
“As neither the resident nor the municipality can quantify the amount of air that flows through the meter it is impossible to convert it to an actual rand value. It is therefore important that we minimise the number of times the network runs dry, and we can do this only with your immediate and committed assistance.”
It should be noted that council has approved water-restriction tariffs. Should the situation on water savings not improve these will be charged from 1 October.
