DURBAN - EThekwini Municipality announced on Friday that the Water and Sanitation Unit was fast-tracking the laying of two pipelines in oThongathi to assist in restoring water supply in several parts of the area.
The city said this came after water supply interruptions were caused by severe damage to infrastructure during the recent floods, which added to the existing damage to several alternate water supplies into the oThongathi area.
“The laying of pipelines is expected to be completed in the next two weeks. Consumers are urged to use water sparingly during the testing process, as it will take time to fully restore water supply,” said the municipality.
Ashan Nandlal, a project executive at eTheKwini Water and Sanitation, said the pipelines that were being laid from the iNyaninga line were approximately 2km long.
“It's been fast-tracked to a point that from concept to planning, design and construction on the ground has been probably six weeks. I think it’s one of the fastest projects we’ve implemented to date,” he said.
Nandlal said the Mamba Ridge pipeline was also being fast-tracked, with 10-20% left to reach completion.
“We are hoping that between these two pipelines, we will alleviate a lot of the water outages in Tongaat,” he said.
He said that while these pipelines would cover as much of oThongathi as possible, there would still be some areas that the city could not supply water to.
“Those will be areas supplied via boreholes, water tankers and via various other support organisations,” said Nandlal.
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