Vandalism has been partly blamed for this week’s catastrophic failure of Buffalo City Metro’s water supply, which cut most of the city off.
Both vandalism and mechanical failures were revealed yesterday by the mayor’s office for being behind the crisis.
The revelation came as a high-level delegation of BCM councillors visited BCM’s water treatment works at Umzonyana in Amalinda to get answers on why virtually all suburbs were without water for two days.
Mayor Alfred Mtsi’s spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said preliminary investigations “have shown that the water cuts were not caused by human error but due to mechanical failure and acts of vandalism”.
Panic gripped thousands of residents as taps ran dry in the majority of East London suburbs, surrounding villages and Mdantsane between Monday and yesterday morning.
The metro’s oversight body, the municipal public accounts committee (MPAC), yesterday went on a fact-finding mission to the treatment works to find answers.
MPAC chairman Sakhumzi Caga confirmed the visit, saying the committee needed to hear from technicians directly.
A full report on the water crisis is likely to be tabled before council next week.
“Once we see what is happening on the ground, we will have to secure a meeting with the acting municipal manager to explain to us why this crisis had not been avoided, and going forward, how will they ensure that ratepayers don’t find themselves in a similar situation,” said Caga, who led the six-member team.
Caga said the meeting with acting municipal manager Ncumisa Sidukwana was scheduled for late yesterday afternoon.
Municipal spokesman Thanduxolo Matebese first hinted on the possible water cuts on Monday after 11am, when he sent out an e-mail to the media saying: “Please be advised that BCM’s water department is undertaking an emergency repair on the Umzonyana rising main, which provides raw water supply to Umzonyana treatment works.”
Five hours later, Matebese issued a follow up statement that repairs would take longer than anticipated.
By Tuesday the metro’s water supply to most suburbs, except parts of Sunnyridge, had stopped.
The dire water situation forced local schools to send pupils home and factories such as Mercedes-Benz and Nestlé South Africa to shut operations.
By yesterday afternoon, water supply was restored to areas such as Dawn, Wilsonia, Scenery Park, Duncan Village, Amalinda, Braelyn, Westbank, Greenfields, Nahoon, Berea and Saxilby.
Vandalism a cause of water outage
Both vandalism and mechanical failures were revealed yesterday by the mayor’s office for being behind the crisis.
The revelation came as a high-level delegation of BCM councillors visited BCM’s water treatment works at Umzonyana in Amalinda to get answers on why virtually all suburbs were without water for two days.
Mayor Alfred Mtsi’s spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said preliminary investigations “have shown that the water cuts were not caused by human error but due to mechanical failure and acts of vandalism”.
Panic gripped thousands of residents as taps ran dry in the majority of East London suburbs, surrounding villages and Mdantsane between Monday and yesterday morning.
The metro’s oversight body, the municipal public accounts committee (MPAC), yesterday went on a fact-finding mission to the treatment works to find answers.
MPAC chairman Sakhumzi Caga confirmed the visit, saying the committee needed to hear from technicians directly.
A full report on the water crisis is likely to be tabled before council next week.
“Once we see what is happening on the ground, we will have to secure a meeting with the acting municipal manager to explain to us why this crisis had not been avoided, and going forward, how will they ensure that ratepayers don’t find themselves in a similar situation,” said Caga, who led the six-member team.
Caga said the meeting with acting municipal manager Ncumisa Sidukwana was scheduled for late yesterday afternoon.
Municipal spokesman Thanduxolo Matebese first hinted on the possible water cuts on Monday after 11am, when he sent out an e-mail to the media saying: “Please be advised that BCM’s water department is undertaking an emergency repair on the Umzonyana rising main, which provides raw water supply to Umzonyana treatment works.”
Five hours later, Matebese issued a follow up statement that repairs would take longer than anticipated.
By Tuesday the metro’s water supply to most suburbs, except parts of Sunnyridge, had stopped.
The dire water situation forced local schools to send pupils home and factories such as Mercedes-Benz and Nestlé South Africa to shut operations.
By yesterday afternoon, water supply was restored to areas such as Dawn, Wilsonia, Scenery Park, Duncan Village, Amalinda, Braelyn, Westbank, Greenfields, Nahoon, Berea and Saxilby.
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