Residents in Wolseley were left struggling with water supply the past few weeks after the storm on 15 June caused a pipe to burst.
Various residents took to social media to express their concern at the lack of water they were experiencing. The Witzenberg Municipality kept residents updated regularly on their Facebook page. They also arranged for water trucks to distribute water to residents in the town on a regular basis.
The municipality explained on their official Facebook page that the water disruption was due to the heavy rains which severely affected extraction pipes which delivered the water to residents.
“On 15 June Wolseley experienced an abnormal rain storm. 110 mm of rainfall was measured on 15 June, with this abnormal rainfall Tierhokskloof weir, which is the water supply point for Wolseley, was flooded and covered with sand, grit and stones, this flooding also covered the abstraction point that had the effect that no water supply was available for Wolseley. The three reservoirs feeding Wolseley with water had sufficient water to feed the town with water for approximately three days. Due to the fact that the reservoir levels were low the booster pump stations, which feeds the higher lying areas with water could not be switched on,” reads the most recent Facebook post regarding the water situation by the Witzenberg Municipality.
Residents regularly expressed their dissatisfaction about the fact that they had been without water for days on end.
The municipality’s teams tirelessly tried to remedy the situation but to the water flow being to strong they did’t not succeed as quickly as it was hoped.
“On 22 June the main water supply line from Tierhokskloof to the reservoir had a pipe burst and was repaired on the same day. We also deployed water carts to the areas in Wolseley with low or no water pressure which were Pine valley and Kluitjieskraal.”
Even the alternative route for water supply to the town could not be used.
“The alternative supply for water to Wolseley, the Airtois canal could not be used, due to the fact that the Artois canal was also in flood due to the heavy rains and was the water muddy and murky and could the sand filters could not clean the water to an acceptable standard. On 26 June we noticed that the flow from the booster pump station at Witbrug, to the Wolseley reservoirs had decreased substantially, upon inspection it was noticed that the impeller pump of the booster pump at Witbrug was damaged and is stuck, we activated the new pump and motor on 26 June, with an increased flow to the reservoirs.”
On 27 June all those who were affected by the water problems had water,
“All customers of Wolseley, Montana and Pine Valley had water, some at lower pressures. The water supply to Kluitjieskraal started coming through at 15:00 with low water pressures. The water network is continuously flushed to remove air from the system. In an effort to ensure that the reservoirs are filled sooner, we are restricting supply from the reservoirs between 21:00 and 05:00 on a daily basis, during these times we are also switching off the booster pump station at Pine Valley, this will have the effect that lower to no flows are experienced during these times.”
The heavy rain also washed away the road to the booster pump at Witbrug.
“The access road to the Witbrug booster pump station has also been washed away by the heavy rain storms, we are busy preparing the access road, this has the effect that during load shedding no water is pumped to the reservoirs, we normally connected our generator to Witbrug pump station during periods of load shedding. We endeavoured to keep the community up to date on this matter by using the municipal Facebook page and by loud hailing.”
The municipality has also asked the community to use water sparingly during this time.
“Again, we appeal to consumers to use water sparingly, until such a time that all reservoirs are at acceptable levels.”
On 27 June at 15:00 the reservoir levels were as follows:
– Reservoir 1 (0,68ML) – 10%
– Reservoir 2 (6 ML) – 22%
– Reservoir 3 ( 4,5 ML) (Stamper street reservoir) – 0%.
