City Wide Water Shutdown 13-15 Nov 2015 – Details & Updates

Due to cable damage at Newton Reservoir Sol Plaatje currently cant pump water into the cities water distribution network.  Areas affected include Rolydene, Labraham, Du Toitspan Road, Monument Heights, El Toro Park, Belgravia and others.
The telephone lines at the Sol Plaatje Call Centre is currently down.  Please use the SMS fault logging system to report issues. Click here for detailed instructions on how to log faults via SMS

Original Notification via Sharon Steyn ” Kimberley there is a cable damage at Newton Reservoir. SP is busy at present with this, they cannot pump water. Areas affected are Rolydene, Labraham, Du Toitspan Road, Monument Heights and Belgravia. People are Reminded of the SMS Line 44204 when sending sms’s please send the problem, physical address, contact person. They will sms you back with a ref No and the fault report. The Call Centre is also having problems with their Tel Lines at present.”

An Imminent Water crisis looms in Kimberley, click for details.

UPDATE 19:00 16/11/2015 On Water Restoration

Water pressure is very low in some areas and other areas still have no water.  According to the Municipality the reservoir levels is still very low, and water usage is high, thus pressure will be very low especially in high laying areas, and water might still take “some time” to reach dry areas.

At this stage if you have NO WATER we recommend that you log a fault with the Sol Plaatje Call Centre on 053 830 6111 or SMS 44204, especially if others around you have water, as there might be a issue of which the Municipality is not aware off.

Logging faults via Telephone

When reporting the problem make sure you give the following information to the operator.

• The nature of the problem
• The exact location or address
• Your name
• Your telephone number.

If your name and telephone number does not get recorded, it will be difficult for the Municipality to contact you if they require further information.

ALWAYS INSIST ON A REFERENCE NUMBER WHEN REPORTING PROBLEMS.

Logging faults via SMS

Faults and problems can also now be reported via the  Sol Plaatje Municipality Infrastructure Call Centre SMS Line.

The SMS number is 44204 from all service providers: Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and others.
The cost per SMS is 86 cent, free SMS’s do not apply.

Please include the following in every SMS:
1. Nature of the problem
2. The exact location or address
3. Suburb of problem
4. Town eg. Kimberley, Richie
5. Name & Surname of complainant

When the job is issued to the Foreman, the complainant will receive a free confirmation SMS.
When the job is completed, the complainant will receive a free confirmation SMS.

All you need to know about the Kimberley City Wide Water-Shutdown on 13-15 November 2015.

For updates on Facebook join the Kimberley Infrastructure Group
Water Restoration Tips – To safe guard your property and to keep your pipes and geysers free of debris during water restorations after an outage, follow these tips.
https://www.kimberley.org.za/water-restoration-tips/

UPDATE 11:00 16/11/2015 via Johan Smit of the DA
Water levels in the Newton Reservoirs are currently at 8.9 feet (maximum level is 16 feet).
Work on the 900mm pipeline at Midlands is almost completed; clamps and fittings are undergoing final checks.
Currently only one out of the three pumps at Riverton Pumping Station is active, but more will be brought on-line once work on the 900mm supply line is complete.

Water is being pumped from Netwon Reservoir into the city, but it takes time for pressure to reach all areas. The public are asked to be patient and to use water sparingly.

The team at Midlands worked extremely hard and had only 3 hours of sleep since Friday.  THANK YOU.
NextGEN gallery is not installed/inactive!

UPDATE 07:00 16/11/2015

Water starting coming back on in low laying areas before 7am this morning.  Water take considerably longer to reach high laying areas such as El Toro Park.

Water restoration is a process, and can take time.  As water is release from Newton Reservoir the supply pipes throughout the city needs to fill and build pressure.  Water usually hit low laying areas, and lower areas close to Newton Reservoir fist.  As water becomes available in areas, consumption climbs which slow down the process of filling the rest of the supply pipes to higher areas.

There is also the real possibility that, like with restoration after the previous city wide shutdown, there may be multiple pipe burst during the pressurization of the distribution network.  Air hammering and other factors put extra strain on the water pipes, which can leading to ruptures at weak points.  Be prepared for localized outages in specific areas to facilitate repair work, when water is introduced to the city’s distribution network.

Information on the water levels at Newton Reservoir is not available yet, but expected to be very low. Please use water sparing to allow water levels to increase

Pressure release valves are open all over the city to allow air to escape during water restoration, and are only closed once all air from a section has escaped. These look like fountains and most are on side-walks. Before reporting a burst pipe please check if it is not just a pressure relieve valve.

All our thanks go out to the teams who worked relentlessly during the weekend on this major project, and also to Sol Plaatje Emergency Service who was responsible for distributing water via JoJo tanks and mobile water trucks during this time

UPDATE 21:20 15/11/2015 via Johan Smit of the DA
The municipality should be starting the pumps at Riverton Pumping Station any time now to feed water into the 600mm pipeline.  The pipeline has to be bled and pressurised, before water will reach the reservoirs. Only when water levels in the reservoirs are at a satisfactory level can the process of bleeding and the preservation of the pipe network in the city be started.
THIS PROCESS WILL TAKE TIME

Work on the 900mm pipeline is still continuing. Only one end of the connection has been completed.

Kimberlites should prepare themselves for the possibility of only receiving usable water pressure across the city sometime tomorrow morning (Maybe even later depending on the progress at Midlands).
NextGEN gallery is not installed/inactive!

UPDATE 20:00 15/11/2015 via Johan Smit of the DA

The probability that water will be back on in Kimberley’s taps before tomorrow morning is very slim.
Connections at Midlands on the 900 mm main supply line from the Riverton Pumping Station is still in progress.  The team is experiencing major difficulties in lining up the sections.  Once all have been lined up welding still need to be completed which can take as long as 5 hours. Once Midlands has been completed, the pipeline still have to be bled and pressurised which also take some time.

The engineers are have almost completed bracing a 600mm pipeline section to bypass the problem area, which will enable them to start pumping a limited amount of water to the reservoirs, where the levels are currently extremely low.

Kimberlites should prepare themselves for the possibility of only receiving usable water pressure sometime tomorrow morning (Maybe even later depending on the progress at Midlands).

NextGEN gallery is not installed/inactive!

UPDATE 18:30 via Johan Smit of the DA

Work at all sites have been completed accept for Midlands where the problem on the 900mm supply line is still proving problematic.
The engineers are working on a plan to start pumping water from Riverton Pumping Station to the Reservoirs via the 600mm supply line.  This will allow a limited amount of water to be pumped to the the Newton Reservoirs.  Water usage will have to be kept to a minimum until reservoir levels have been restored.

UPDATE 17:30 15/11/2015 Via Sello Matsie of Municipal Communications
“Latest Update: All sites now done except the one mainline; the joiner of the last bit of pipe connections are in progress; water will be restored late tonight. Assurance is given that everything is being done to conclude the work. Thanks for the cooperation and patience”
END

UPDATE 17:30 15/11/2015 Via Sello Matsie of Municipal Communications
“Latest Update: All sites now done except the one mainline; the joiner of the last bit of pipe connections are in progress; water will be restored late tonight. Assurance is given that everything is being done to conclude the work. Thanks for the cooperation and patience”
END

Webmaster Comment: Please be cautions and ensure that you have enough water to last until tomorrow morning. The update from Sol Plaatje Municipality does not clearly state whether “tonight” is by 12:00 am, or early tomorrow morning, neither does it clearly state if the municipality will start pumping water from Riverton “tonight”, if they will start introducing water to the cities water pipes “tonight”, or if water will be back in the cities taps by “tonight”. We all hope to have water late tonight but it is prudent to be prepared in case there are any further delays. We will post an update when this has been clarified.

UPDATE 16:30 15/11/2015  – Via Johan Smit of the DA

• The water leak on one of the main supply lines across the new hospital has been repaired.
• At Shoprite in Barkly road there is T-piece causing delays, but the engineers in are making headway, and work there is nearing completion.
• At Midlands there are problems with fitting a T-piece, and progress there is behind schedule.
• Work at Riverton is also still in progress, but reports from the site indicate that they are nearing completion.
• At this stage it is still not possible to pump water to the City from the Riverton Pumping Station.

NextGEN gallery is not installed/inactive!

11:30 15/11/2015 – This Sunday morning the big questions on the minds of most Kimberlites is “When will we have water in our taps again”

At this moment no one can answer that question, as there are too many variables in play. Marrying new valves and fitting to the existing pipelines brings numerous challenges and possible technical difficulties which can push times forward.

At 10:00 today work on the 600mm supply line from the Riverton Pumping Station was all but finished, but work on the 900mm supply line is continuing. The municipality intends to start pumping water to the reservoirs via the 600mm supply line once the last minor details on that line has been taken care off.

Please take into consideration that it takes an enormous amount of water to fill the pipeline and only when the line has been fully pressurised can the possible of leaks be eliminated.  When the supply line has been pressurised water in the reservoirs needs to be at satisfactory levels before water at an acceptable pressure can be introduced into the city water distribution network, which is mostly empty and need to be filled, before pressure will build. From current available information expectations are that this will not happen until both supply lines are pumping at capacity.

With Kimberlites eagerly awaiting water restoration water usage will be extremely high when supply is restored. Even with both the 600mm and 900mm incoming supply lines running at full capacity high water usage can exceed the inflow from Riverton, making it extremely difficult to maintain reservoir levels and keep water pressure up.

There is also the real possibility that, like with restoration after the previous city wide shutdown, there may be multiple pipe burst during the pressurization of the distribution network.  Air hammering and other factors put extra strain on the water pipes, which can leading to ruptures at weak points.  Be prepared for localized outages in specific areas to facilitate repair work, when water is introduced to the city’s distribution network.

At this moment it is a waiting game, but do know that the teams have been working hard and are still putting in all effort to restore water as soon as possible.

UPDATE 09:50 15/11/2015 – Kimberley Water Shutdown

“At Midlands we are working on two pipes. The 600 mm is also complete and the isolation valve installed.

The 900 is still being assembled and will take some time due to the welding. The intention is to start supplying with the 600 mm while work will be continuing on the 900mm pipe. At Barkly Road we will also be able to isolate areas with the new system. Before starting to pump. Just minor details are being sorted out to ensure that the pipeline is stable where it has been linked.”

UPDATE 14/11/2015 10:00 – Progress in Barkly Road via Sello Matsie of Municipal Communications.

NextGEN gallery is not installed/inactive!

Update 14/11/2015 08:00 – The Section of Waterworks Road, next to the Newton Reservoir, is closed for traffic during the water shut-down..

UPDATE 13/11/2015 19:10 – Sol Plaatje Emergency Services has started distributing water to the community.

Update 13/11/2015 14:00

Municipal spokesman, Sello Matsie, said this morning that accelerated depletion of the water levels at the Newton Reservoir last night prompted a decision to cut off supplies to the city at 10pm.

“This was to allow the reserves to build up so that we could ensure everyone had water this morning again.”
After water levels at Newton Reservoir dropped from 16 feet to 7 feet on Thursday when water usage reached a peak where the outflow from the reservoirs exceeded the inflow from the Riverton Pumping station by a large margin.

Earlier, two dams at Newton Reservoir was isolated and filled to their full capacity of 150 million litres in anticipation of the water shutdown.

UPDATE 13/11/2015 09:25 Via Johan Smit van die DA ” Die erge hitte die laaste week het abnormale hoë waterverbruik tot gevolg gehad.  Die watervlakke by Newton is baie laag as gevolg van die hoë verbruik.
Al die pompe loop by Riverton suiweringsaanleg maar die uitermate hoë verbruik veroorsaak dat dat damme so laag is dat gedeeltes van Kimberley gister sonder water was.
Inwoners word versoek om water uiters oordeelkundig te gebruik om so te verseker dat damvlakke kan optel.”

UPDATE 13/11/2015 08:00 Water is back on this morning.  At this time Sol Plaatje has not provided any feedback.  It is presumed that Sol Plaatje did not anticipate the extra water usage by the public preparing for the weekend shut-down, and cut water levels during the night to raise water levels the Newton Reservoir.

UPDATE 12/11/2015 23:00 – Apparently Sol Plaatje cut water to large parts of Kimberley tonight (Thusday).  Pressure started dropping late afternoon.  Feedback from the call centre was that the reason for the low pressure was that water usage is very high due to everyone preparing for the weekend’s shutdown.   By 23:00 the largest part of Kimberley had VERY low pressure NO water.  Sol Plaatje Municipality provided no information or feedback via official channels.

Water Shut-Down Details

There will be a City Wide Water Shutdown from 5pm on the evening of Friday, 13 November 2015 to the Morning of Sunday, 15 November 2015 to enable the replacement of two valves on the main pipelines feeding the City from the Riverton Water-purification Plant.
NOTE: Any unforeseen complications may delay water restoration.

The municipality is requesting that households make adequate provision for water over the period. On average, families require between 150 litres and 300 litres in this time period. Contingency plans are being drawn up to supply the affected areas with mobile and static water tanks which will be supervised at all times to avoid misuse.  This process will be managed by the Fire Emergency Services and the public can call the telephone number 053 832 4211 in this regard.

Sol Plaatje Municipality will also use this opportunity to replace more corroded pipes at Newton Reservoir.

The municipality plan to replace twenty two pipes and two pipelines at Newton Reservoir which are severely corroded and burst regularly.  Last weekend large parts of Kimberley was left bone dry after one of these pipelines burst and water had to be cut to allow repairs.

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FROM SHARON STEYN “KIMBERLEY get yourselves prepared and make sure that you have enough water for this weekend.
Hancor will be assisting me again and they will have water available the whole weekend. All you have to do is go and fetch from Hancor Dairies. THANK YOU PIETA SERFONTEIN.”

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More information

Click for full details & The Official Sol Plaatje Municipal Press release