News24 | Sol Plaatjie says water restored in Kimberley after 5-day shutdown, but DA remains concerned

Water has been restored in Kimberley.

• Sol Plaatjie Municipality spokesperson Thoko Riet said the water situation in Kimberley was under control after a five-day water shutdown.
• She told News24 water was restored in most parts of the municipality except for sporadic reports of low water pressure and a few still without the resource.
• The DA said the outage was concerning and accused the ANC of postponing an urgent meeting to address the outage. 

Water has been fully restored in most parts of Kimberley after a five-day shutdown, the Sol Plaatje Municipality said on Friday, but the DA added it was still receiving numerous reports of outages.

Municipality spokesperson Thoko Riet told News24 some areas experienced low water pressure while only a few areas were without water.

She said the municipality would reduce the water supply shutdowns that had been introduced to boost the levels of reservoirs. 

“We will have nightly shutdowns from now on,” Riet added.

Previously, the municipality switched off supply twice daily from 11:00 to 16:00 and again from 21:00 to 04:00. 

However, the DA in the province said it requested an urgent council meeting to address the shutdown.

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Councillor Christ Whittaker said the meeting was scheduled for 15:00 on Friday but “the ANC tried to postpone and then walked out of the meeting, prolonging the process”.

Whittaker added they wanted to know why they were still getting reports of residents, areas, schools and old age homes without water.

“Water is essential for every single resident of Kimberley. It doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is.

“We will continue to try to get answers in the face of the ANC postponing and prolonging the process,” he said. 

Last week, the municipality urged residents to make alternative water supply arrangements due to an “emergency water interruption” from 9 to 14 August. 

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