Following Eskom’s implementation of Stage 5 load-shedding, the City’s Water and Sanitation Directorate advises residents of potential impacts that may arise, relating to the provision of services. The City would like to appeal to its residents to reduce their water consumption where possible.
WATER SERVICES
Most of the City’s water supply is gravity-fed from higher-lying dams.
The water treatment plants across the City are equipped with standby generators to ensure that clean drinking water can continue to be provided in the event of load-shedding.
Some higher-lying areas may experience low pressure or supply disruptions in the event of a power outage affecting the booster water pump stations which are required in some areas to convey water to the reservoirs supplying the higher lying areas across the City.
Should residents in these areas – particularly in the northern and southern parts of the city – experience low pressure, this could likely be due to the impact of load-shedding.
However, if the problem persists for more than four hours, residents are advised to contact the City on the following channels: WhatsApp to 060 018 1505, email water@capetown.gov.za or call 0860 103 089.
Alternatively, follow the City’s Twitter account @CityofCTAlerts for operational updates.
SANITATION SERVICES
Permanent generators have been fitted at all wastewater treatment plants, 85 larger priority water and sewer pump stations were fitted with permanent generators as a measure to increase the resilience of water and sanitation supply systems.
Our maintenance staff are on standby and will use mobile generators to power smaller pumps. All pump stations are fitted with telemetry to help us monitor the sump levels of the facilities.
We have limited availability of mobile generators, and some pump-stations might overflow if load-shedding is implemented for longer than 2-hours at a time.
However, with severe load-shedding i.e. large areas without power, it is not logistically possible to prevent overflows entirely, in which case the operational teams do their utmost to contain and clean up such flows.
Source: City Of Cape Town