*This article has been edited
Cape Town – Residents of Kriel in Mpumalanga will be affected by a planned two-week water shortage, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) said on Tuesday.
The DWS said that a planned water shortage that would affect bulk water supplies to the town of Kriel in the Emalahleni local municipality started on Tuesday and would end on August 16.
“All prior preparations and good planning and coordination in this regard have led to a smooth start and operation,” said DWS spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau.
“The outage is as a result of Eskom construction of a railway line from Ermelo to Majuba Power Station,” he said.
He explained that this railway line crossed the DWS’s pipeline between the Rietspruit reservoir and Davel.
As a result of this, Eskom requested a power cut to tie in the permanent deviation of the pipeline to the existing structure as per the DWS approved design.
The deviation of the structure was approved by DWS engineers who are involved with the quality control measures during the construction phase.
“This is Phase Two of the tie-in project, which is the final phase as Phase One was done in February 2015. This also affords the department the chance for opportune maintenance and repair work on the bulk pipeline,” Ratau said.
Ratau said that the communities surrounding Kriel would be provided with water through “strategically placed jojo tanks within a reasonable distance in their areas of residence” for the duration of the two-week water cut.
ANA