Cape Town - The City of Cape Town is scaling back the operating days and hours of public swimming pools, following the end of the peak holiday season, as well as due to the effects of load shedding.
The time changes will be implemented at 16 community swimming pools, namely Bellville, Bellville South, Bonteheuwel, Brown’s Farm, Delft, Goodwood, Hanover Park, Kensington, Khayelitsha, Lentegeur, Muizenberg, Parow North, Ruyterwacht, Trafalgar, Wesfleur (Atlantis) and Wynberg.
These swimming pools were open daily during the peak festive season period, but operating hours will be limited to Thursdays and Fridays, from 2pm to 5pm, as well as Saturdays and Sundays, from 10am to 7pm.
The indoor swimming pools in Retreat, Blue Downs and Strand will continue to operate daily, from 10am until 5pm, while Sea Point and Long Street are open daily from 7am to 7pm.
These hours are however subject to the stage of load shedding affecting the respective area, as swimming pool plant rooms rely on electricity to circulate water and distribute chemicals to maintain water quality standards.
Mayco Member for Community Services and Health, Patricia van der Ross said: “Load shedding has very real implications for our swimming pool operations, most notably the ability to maintain water quality. The City cannot risk public health.
“That is why our facilities management may decide to close during outages, if their assessments indicate that the water quality has been compromised.
“I ask our patrons to please co-operate with staff in the event that a facility has to close due to load-shedding,” said Van der Ross.
Meanwhile, eight pools are temporarily closed due to structural, mechanical and electrical faults.
Work continues at Athlone, Langa, Manenberg, Mnandi, Westridge, Parow Valley, Ravensmead and Newlands.
Opening dates and times will be communicated to the public once the repairs are completed.
Newlands is expected to reopen on Friday, January 27, but will only be operating from Thursdays to Sundays.
This after testing was carried out on the chlorination system to ensure water quality standards were met.
At Manenberg swimming pool, the City is assessing the condition of underground circulation pipes to determine why cast iron particles are ending up in the swimming pool.
Once the root cause is identified, the necessary remedial action can be determined.
The duration and type of repairs needed can only be determined following the internal assessments.
The following pools are not opening this season due to major repairs needed: Eastridge, Elsies River, Emthonjeni, Morningstar, Observatory and Vulindlela.