“Residents continued to complain that they don’t have water even after we opened their valves this morning.”
SOL PLAATJE Municipality extended the shared water allocation time for high-lying areas of the city from noon to 2pm today due to suspected sabotage.
The municipality claimed that water valves had been tampered with.
The acting director of technical services at Sol Plaatje Municipality, Phethole Sithole, said that a municipal team made the discovery earlier today after conducting inspections.
“The team went to enquire about why residents continued to complain that they don’t have water after we opened their valves this morning. It did not make any sense to us because we knew that we opened the water for them,” said Sithole.
“That is how we discovered that areas that we never closed were closed.
“There is an element that we can’t rule out sabotage.
“Yesterday, we could also not understand why the area of Rhodesdene was not getting water while other people were getting water.”
Sithole said they could not close the water to high-level areas at noon today, as planned, because there are areas that did not receive water.
He added that the water allocation to lower-lying areas would therefore be delayed until 2pm, while water trucks would continue to supply the affected area with water.
The water supply is set to be interrupted to the entire city from 6pm until tomorrow morning, to build up the levels at the Newton Reservoir.
