“The planned interruption will only be for 24 hours and is necessary in order to commission the new transformers”
ANOTHER planned interruption of water from Riverton to Kimberley is on the cards.
The Sol Plaatje Municipality announced yesterday that its electrical division had received delivery of the first 10MVA transformer at Riverton on Friday.
The transformer will be installed at the new pumping station which was recently commissioned at the Riverton Water Purification Plant.
Municipal spokesperson, Thoko Riet, said on Friday that the planning for the installation of the new transformer was progressing well.
“The planned interruption will only be for 24 hours and is necessary in order to commission the new transformers,” Riet said on Friday.
She did not give a date, however, when the installation would be done.
Meanwhile Riet confirmed that the levels at the Newton Reservoir were currently standing at 15.10ft.
“This is a positive sign . . . the levels are looking good and no planned interruptions from the reservoir to the city are currently on the cards.”
Last weekend the water supply to the city was cut from 1pm on Saturday to 1pm on Sunday to allow the levels at the reservoir, which had dropped drastically, to improve.
At a public meeting organised last month by the Northern Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nocci), the city’s electrical engineer informed attendees that the municipality had anticipated that there would be a problem with the old transformers once the new pump station at Riverton was commissioned and, as a result, two new transformers were ordered.
He explained at the time that there was no spare capacity on the old transformers, which he stated were also very sensitive.
The two new ones that were ordered are 10 MVA each, meaning that there will be capacity for future expansion.
Failures on the old transformers resulted in water not being pumped from Riverton to Kimberley and was named as one of the reasons why the municipality was not able to keep up with the consumption of water by city residents.
The new transformers are expected to address this issue.
