Having just begun to recover from the devastation of recent floods, Buffalo City residents on Tuesday were suddenly faced with water outages throughout the city.
The metro released a statement explaining that the outages, which it said affected Vincent, Vincent Heights, Beacon Bay, Gonubie, Amalinda, Buffalo Flats, Vergenoeg and Scenery Park; were the result of the flash floods dramatically increasing the turbidity of the city’s water which caused sediment to clog up the filters and restrict water flow.
The metro had to quickly source additional chemicals to rectify the problem and was hopeful that the normal supply would be restored on Wednesday evening.
Buffalo City spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the water could still be murky to begin with but it should be back to normal soon.
“We advise consumers not to consume the water until it clears,” he said.
“The municipality has regular random tests where samples of water are tested to ensure that they comply with acceptable national standards; therefore we have confidence that the water is healthy and compliant.
“This is one of the reasons we have delayed pumping in some areas to ensure that we put in chemicals that will kill bacteria and be in line with the industry norms.”
Ngwenya said that in Mdantsane, reservoirs were low because of Eskom shutdowns at Nahoon Dam on Tuesday and Wednesday,
DispatchLIVE
Floods lead to water outages in Buffalo City
Image: MICHAEL PINYANA
Having just begun to recover from the devastation of recent floods, Buffalo City residents on Tuesday were suddenly faced with water outages throughout the city.
The metro released a statement explaining that the outages, which it said affected Vincent, Vincent Heights, Beacon Bay, Gonubie, Amalinda, Buffalo Flats, Vergenoeg and Scenery Park; were the result of the flash floods dramatically increasing the turbidity of the city’s water which caused sediment to clog up the filters and restrict water flow.
The metro had to quickly source additional chemicals to rectify the problem and was hopeful that the normal supply would be restored on Wednesday evening.
Buffalo City spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the water could still be murky to begin with but it should be back to normal soon.
“We advise consumers not to consume the water until it clears,” he said.
“The municipality has regular random tests where samples of water are tested to ensure that they comply with acceptable national standards; therefore we have confidence that the water is healthy and compliant.
“This is one of the reasons we have delayed pumping in some areas to ensure that we put in chemicals that will kill bacteria and be in line with the industry norms.”
Ngwenya said that in Mdantsane, reservoirs were low because of Eskom shutdowns at Nahoon Dam on Tuesday and Wednesday,
DispatchLIVE
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