KNYSNA NEWS - “What would have happened if we had had a fire, and firefighters needed to access that fire hydrant? By the time they had found it, it would have been too late.”
This was the concern raised by Chris Gould, a resident of the Heads in Knysna and chairman of the Knysna Ratepayers Association (KRA), when a roads team from the municipality tarred over a recently installed fire hydrant.
What’s even more concerning, said Gould, was that the valve was clearly marked with a white post that had the letters “FH” painted on it in red.
The valve was tarred over while re-tarring a section of the road that had been dug up by a contractor working on water pipes.
“The work was being done in Eagle’s Way. Once the contractor was done the municipality came to repair the road again.
"There were five valves and one fire hydrant in the road, all of them under metal plates, and another valve and plate across the road in the dirt.
"The municipal workers completely covered the valve plate in the dirt, making it impossible to find unless you knew where it was already.
"They then tarred around the five plates in such a way that you could not open them – they were held fast by tar.
"Had there been a pipe burst, workers would have had to chisel the valve plates off before they could turn off the water, losing tens of thousands of litres in the process. And then they, unbelievably, tarred right over the fire hydrant plate.
The fire hydrant valve, complete with cover after a contractor on site removed tar over the hole. The red and white marker has always been there according to residents, which makes the tarring over of the valve even more strange.
"How do six people manage to tar right over a fire hydrant? And where was the supervisor while all this was going on? I’ve asked who he was, but no one will say.”
According to Gould, a resident who lived across the street noticed that the five valve plates were held fast by the tar, and reported it. The contractor volunteered to chip the tar away from around the plates so they could be removed.
It was then that the contractor realised that the yellow fire hydrant plate was missing.
“He went around tapping the tar, listening for a hollow sound, and was able to find the buried fire hydrant."
“There really is no accountability in this outfit. And obviously, no effective supervision,” Gould added.
His concern for the lack of supervision over municipal work has been coming a long time.
Municipal response
According to spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhout the municipality's technical department dealt with the problem and all the valves and hydrant boxes were opened and made visible.
"Work at the Heads was completed two weeks ago," he added.
Bezuidenhout said it was worth noting that a new water system has been constructed and some of the old valves on the old system had to be closed.
"The municipality reassures residents that work done at the Heads will have no impact on any road maintenance or defects on the roads. An official from our technical department was on site to monitor work being done by the contractor," he said.
Bezuidenhout further urged residents to contact the technical services department to report any technical-related issues.
Electricity faults can be reported to 044 302 6397, and water and sewerage faults to 044 302 6331.
"They must please provide a street name, area and contact details. We further encourage residents to download the municipal app at http://knysna.comunity.me"
Further issues
The Heads has experienced some form of water or electrical interruption on several occasions since October this year.
In the first incident, water supply to The Heads was completely interrupted on 11 October when a contractor appointed to do upgrades on the water reticulation system ignored municipal instructions.
Ward 9 councillor Mark Willemse's statement to the Knysna-Plett Herald on Saturday 14 October was that the contractor appointed to complete the upgrade to the old water reticulation system caused a fault that resulted in the outage.
According to Gould, the problem with contractor Iviwe Engineering Solutions from East London started two Fridays before, on 6 October.
"That afternoon the contractor decided to commission a section of the pipe that was not yet ready,” he said. The contractor also did not follow standard practice according to Gould.
Fortunately, said Gould, he was stopped before he could do any damage, and that section of pipe was successfully commissioned the following Tuesday.
A contractor finishes off the work after the fire hydrant valve was uncovered.
But the next day, 11 October, the contractor went ahead and ignored an explicit site instruction from the resident engineer and proceeded to commission a section of pipe before it was ready, ultimately resulting in a three-day water outage on most of the Heads. (This was reported on the front page of Knysna-Plett Herald on 19 October 2017, under the heading “Knysna Heads Water Havoc”.)
The second incident occurred on 13 November.
Power outage
According to KRA spokesperson Rex Hart a large portion of The Heads experienced a power outage that lasted over two days, seriously disrupting residents lives and costing B&Bs and guest houses on The Heads to lose hundreds of thousands of rand in cancelled bookings, refunds and spoiled food in fridges and freezers.
“The power failure was due to damage to a cable that occurred during phase 1 of the water reticulation upgrade project that began on 18 June, and was originally scheduled to last two months, but ended up lasting six.”
“Digging by municipal electricians who sought to repair the damaged cable then caused a loose T-junction in the newly laid water pipeline to dislocate, flooding the trench, draining the reservoir, and adding a water outage to the already crippling power outage,” he said.
Hart added that, needless to say, residents and local business owners catering to tourists were outraged, and many are threatening to withhold rates in an effort to force the municipality to start providing proper service delivery.
Here, again, the role played by the municipality in managing the project has been questioned not only by the KRA but by residents of the Heads as well.
“It’s really been a war zone up here for the past six months” said Gould. “And what I want to know is, how was this contractor ever selected in the first place?”
The Knysna municipality said at that time that, while addressing an electrical fault, the removal of the earth around the newly laid water pipes caused the pipes to detach.
“Our technical team managed to resolve the water interruption within six to seven hours. Remedial steps have been put in place to project manage the contractor.
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