Home News Reservoir water levels ‘fairly comfortable’

Reservoir water levels ‘fairly comfortable’

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The municipality is also working on recommissioning the old treatment plant, which will add a further 54ML/day of water to the city

WITH the water levels at the Newton Reservoir reported to be “fairly comfortable”, water to the city was not expected to be shut down – for the first time in several weeks – last night.

While residents have grown accustomed to initially having no water in the evenings, and more recently from 2pm in the afternoons, yesterday was the first time since the beginning of October that the taps remained on for the entire day.

Sol Plaatje Municipality spokesperson Sello Matsie said yesterday that the levels at the Newton Reservoir were “fairly comfortable for now”. He added that the municipality would, however, be monitoring consumption, as well as any major leaks, vigorously to ensure stability of the system.

The municipality announced earlier this week that the nightly shutdown of water was expected to be suspended this week after the local authority adopted a number of interventions to ensure that it was able to meet the demand for water. While the demand was 90ML/day, the municipality was only managing to pump 82ML/day to Kimberley.

Production at the Riverton Treatment Works was, however, increased by upping the daily backwashing schedule. The municipality is also working on recommissioning the old treatment plant, which will add a further 54ML/day of water to the city.

The interventions resulted in the water levels at the Newton Reservoir complex stabilising for the first time in weeks and by Monday the good news was received that the levels at the various dams were sitting at 12.4ft on the 91ML, 23ML and 45ML dams and 15ft on the 106ML dam.

The operational requirement of the reservoir is that they must be at 16ft at all times to ensure that there is no water supply shortage, and once this level was reached the need for the daily shutdowns was no longer necessary.

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