Mayor tackles water outages

KNYSNA NEWS - By Friday 19 January, the loss of water for the third time in a week had Knysna residents in affected areas frantic.

Friday's water loss for large areas of the CBD and Upper Town was the final straw, said readers contacting Knynsa-Plett Herald, since it was the longest break, lasting most of the day – and the third in a week.

The municipality was contacted several times for comment while it was bombed by people wanting to know when the water would be back.

Eventually, later in the evening, an official release was issued by municipal manager Kam Chetty with some answers.

This followed an urgent mayoral committee meeting which was called by the mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies.

'Severe weather, pipe age to blame'
In the press release, Chetty attributed most of these major pipe breaks to ageing infrastructure, weather and soil conditions.

“The extreme drought conditions have an effect on the soil, especially in clay soil areas. Water pipes are made from asbestos and as the soil expands and contracts, the pipes break,” explained Chetty.

He said the water infrastructure in the CBD was installed over 50 years ago and was one of the first water reticulation systems constructed in Knysna.

“This infrastructure has reached its lifespan – in engineering terms the lifecycle of water infrastructure is typically 30 years.

"Moreover, the water pipes are made from asbestos which is brittle and this has been exacerbated by the extreme weather conditions particularly the expansion and contraction," said Chetty.

Municipal workers attend to a pipe break on the corner of Pitt and Queen Street on Friday 19 January. Photo: Stefan Goosen

The technical services department has been working tirelessly and around the clock on the various water pipe break repairs, he said, and went on to explain the procedure of dealing with pipe breaks.

"An average break takes four to six hours to repair. The technical team isolates (by closing the valve) the area where the pipe break occurred.

"This minimises water loss and the number of people/households affected. Thereafter the digging and repair process starts."

Based on the numerous pipe breaks that have occurred recently, the mayoral committee members had an urgent meeting on Friday, 19 January, in order to urgently address this problem.

Mayor apologises for outages
Bouw-Spies and her team sincerely apologised for these water outages. "This has been a recurring problem that affected the municipality for a number of years," stated Bouw-Spies, who said she had called an urgent mayoral committee meeting on Friday to address the problem.

The following resolutions were taken, according to the press release:

In the short term, to commence in February with valve replacement to reduce the impact of the breakages by isolating the impact to smaller areas. (This will not completely stop the pipe breaks, however will assist with minimising water losses and affected people.)
To develop a scope and cost estimate will be done to replace the entire aged water network in town.
Funding for these interventions will be discussed in council as a matter of priority. The mayoral committee agreed that the replacement can no longer be postponed.

Bouw-Spies said, "We wish to assure residents that we are committed to addressing the water problems in Greater Knysna and the upgrade of infrastructure is at the top of our priority."

A municipal worker points out the break in the pipe on the corner of Pitt and Queen streets on Friday 19 January. He said this was still a very old asbestos pipe, "older than I am", he added. Photo: Stefan Goosen

Muni 'committed to finding solutions'
Chetty said that they are committed to finding a solution. “I apologise sincerely for the water outages and the discomfort it causes, but we are working around the clock to fix it.

"We are also working on short and long-term interventions with council.”

He confirmed that the municipality has started a programme to replace old pipelines. “The old asbestos pipes are replaced with UPVC pipes which is more tolerant of the soil condition. In the areas where this has been implemented already the number of pipe breaks have significantly decreased.”

Water leaks and pipe bursts should be reported quickly and accurately in order for them to be repaired timeously.

The Knysna municipal technical team working on a water pipe repair in the CBD. This has become an all too familiar sight for town residents. Photo: Supplied