Knysna piped up

KNYSNA NEWS - For the past few months, drivers in Knysna's CBD have had to dodge construction vehicles, avoid pieces of road that haven't been resurfaced yet, and navigate two-lane roads turned into one lane due to the construction. But why? What has been going on? Here's all you need to know about the chaos in the CBD:

For years the Knysna community has been at the receiving end of and complained about water-pipe bursts, but now there could be an end to these incidents as the municipality has been upgrading the water network in the CBD.

Municipal spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhout admitted that the problems were largely due to infrastructure that had not been maintained.

"Knysna has been plagued with water-pipe breaks and the main reason for these breaks can be attributed to aging infrastructure," Bezuidenhout said. "The current upgrade of the CDB water network is a direct outcome of what the community requested from council. The municipality thus developed a strategy to manage the town's water supply-and-demand situation to ensure sustainability in the long term."

Bezuidenhout also confirmed that this won't be a quick fix, as the CBD Water Reticulation project, which commenced in the 2018/19 financial year, will run over three financial years.

Despite disruptions to traffic flow in the CBD, the project has been successful thus far according to Bezuidenhout, as 65% of the new pipework connections and crossings have already been completed. This also means the new water network could be put to use as early as end September, as Phase 1A and Phase 1B will be fully commissioned by then, while Phase 2 – which will see further sections of the CBD upgraded – will be implemented at a later stage of this financial year (2019/2020).

Resurfacing of the roads has already started, with Bezuidenhout indicating that Phase 1A (Tide Street, Clyde Street, Spring Street, and more) already commenced at the end of July, as the water lines have already been completed and passed pressure tests. There are also plans to upgrade the reticulation in Hornlee during this financial year, which will undoubtedly be a major boost for the community.

The municipality has been upgrading the water network in the CBD. Photo: Blake Linder