City completes water supply network upgrade to Blaauwberg area ahead of schedule
14 August 2020
The City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Department has successfully completed the upgrade on the water supply network in the Blaauwberg area approximately 18 hours sooner than scheduled. The upgrade aims to improve the reliability of water supply to the area. The City is currently doing assessments of the water supply to the various areas affected during this upgrade to ensure that their supply has been restored to normal. Read more below:
The City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation team has completed the upgrade of the 700mm bulk water supply line feeding the Blaauwberg area within approximately 21,5 hours.
This is well ahead of schedule, as the work commenced at midnight (00:00) on Thursday, 13 August 2020 and was planned to be completed tonight, on Friday, 14 August 2020, by 18:00.
Leading up to the start of the work, water supply was rerouted from other areas to help sustain water availability during the works, and it was anticipated that Blaauwberg, Melkbosstrand, Duynefontein, Atlantic Beach and the rural areas between Melkbosstrand and Atlantis would experience lower water pressure while the upgrade was in progress. Unfortunately, some unintended glitches were encountered which resulted in some of these areas experiencing temporary water supply disruption.
‘This hasn’t been an easy task, so I thank the Water and Sanitation team for making every effort to complete the upgrade in the shortest and safest time possible, over a period of approximately 21 hours. It has been an extremely complex job, from planning to its completion, but this work is necessary to improve the reliability of water supply to the area.
‘The team is monitoring and assessing the water supply in the affected areas and also flushing the system where required, including Parklands, Sunningdale, Bloubergstrand, Duynefontein and Melkbosstrand, among others. If any pipe bursts occurred during the reinstatement of the water supply, water trucks will be made available to residents. There is usually a slight discolouration of the water when we do the water supply changeover after we have completed an infrastructure upgrade, but it doesn’t pose any health hazard.
‘I also want to thank our residents for their patience while the upgrade was under way. The City sincerely regrets any inconvenience caused during this time, however, it is imperative that the water supply infrastructure is maintained and upgraded effectively to ensure a continued, reliable supply of drinking water to residents,’ said Alderman Xanthea Limberg, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Waste.
Furthermore, residents are reminded that they can submit service requests to the City via the following channels:
• Phone: 0860103089 option 2
• SMS: 31373
• Email: water@capetown.gov.za
• Online: www.capetown.gov.za/servicerequests/
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
