Kimberley residents hit by yet another water shutdown

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Kimberley residents have been hit by yet another water shutdown following the temporary closure of one of the main water reservoirs.

The Sol Plaatje Municipality has implemented an emergency three-day shutdown to repair leaks on the main pipelines.

For the past year,  Kimberley has experienced water cuts every other month. This is despite the municipality announcing in June that they received a grant of more than a billion rand from national treasury – to repair old and worn-out water infrastructure over the next five years.

Sol Plaatje Municipality’s acting mayor, Thobeka Matika, says experts have been brought in to deal with the crisis.

“The municipality would like to assure residents that we remain committed to addressing the loss of water precipitated by the aging network infrastructure. We have also summoned the services of network and bulk water supply specialists in resolving the current situation and in our endeavour of guaranteeing water security.”

Meanwhile, residents say they are frustrated by the abrupt water shutdown, which they did not prepare for.

“They never inform us really about stuff like that, so it is very frustrating for us people of Kimberley because I  have never seen something or heard something about the emergency shutdown,” says one of the residents.

Another resident says, “It is not good for us because it is affecting us when we are looking for water to clean our taxis, it is not fine for passengers to find our taxis dirty, we are working with people.”