These Durban suburbs will be without water next week

Durban - A water shutdown has been planned for the entire Western Aqueduct system next week. According to eThekwini Municipality spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela, the shutdown will take place next Tuesday and Wednesday, February 18 and 19.

"The main aim of the shutdown is to do a tie in of the new 800mm diameter steel main from Cato Ridge reservoir into the existing 1600mm diameter Aqueduct line.To undertake this tie in, the City is compelled to completely drain the aqueduct since the operation involves mainly steel welding. The system will therefore be completely isolated at point M custody transfer station," he said.

He said to prepare the site for welding and construction teams on site, the process of draining the aqueduct will commence at 6am on Tuesday.

"This will allow the site teams to commence work at 6pm on the same day. The duration of the entire shut down will be from 6am on Tuesday until 6pm on Wednesday. We will endeavor to fill all the reservoirs affected to top water level, however the behavior of respective reservoirs is different and dependent on downstream demands," Mayisela said.

Water tankers will be dispatched to service areas experiencing water outages during this shutdown period.

These are the affected areas:

Georgedale Reservoir zone: Georgedale and Mpumalanga

Hammersdale Low Level Reservoir: Hammersdale CBD

Hammersdale High Level Reservoir: Cliffdale and Mlaba village

Shongweni Reservoir Zone: Shongweni and Ntshongweni

Zwelibomvu Reservoir Zone: Zwelibomvu, Salem, Ofudu, Inwabi and Ngonyameni

Cato Ridge Reservoir Zone: Cato Ridge, Ntukuso, Kwaximba, Assimang

Abbattoir Resrvoir Zone: KwaXimba and Emadeleni

Alverstone Nek Res Zone: Alverstone, Alverstone North, Summerveld

Bothas Hill Reservoir Zone: Bothas Hill, Kwanyuswa, Mnamatha, Mabedlane and Magugwana

Emoyeni Reservoir: Hillcrest, Hillcrest Hospital, Winston Park and Gillitts