The City of Tshwane’s Temba Water Treatment Works that supplies water to Hammanskraal and surrounding areas will remain off pending the improvement of the water quality from the Leeuwkraal Dam, from which Temba Water Treatment Works sources its raw water for treatment to potable standards.
Temba Water Treatment Works was shut down on Monday, 7 October 2024, after the City’s technicians discovered that there was sewer contamination in the Leeuwkraal Dam. Pumping had to stop to avoid supplying poor water quality to our consumers.
These challenges were caused by a fire that gutted Pyramid Substation on 2 October 2024, leaving Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works without electricity. The plant had to temporarily cease operations and consequently discharged untreated sewage into the Apies River, which feeds the Leeuwkraal Dam.
In the interim, a team of scientists is monitoring the performance of Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works to ensure that it complies with the required effluent standards. These standards, mandated by strict regulatory requirements, include limits on chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), nitrate (NO3), phosphate (PO4), ammonia, E. coli and residual chlorine which must be consistently met by the plant.
The City will continue to provide roaming water tankers to residents until the situation normalises. There are residents who have alleged that some water tankers were being channelled to “connected” people and, as a result, some communities do not receive water through the tankers.
Furthermore, some have alleged that they are being forced to pay to receive water. The City wishes to make it categorially clear that the City’s contracted service providers are delivering water for free and residents do not have to pay for it.
The City had initially made a commitment that the pumping of water would resume within seven days, however, this is dependent on the outcome of the laboratory tests. The City’s laboratory team, which took raw water samples from Temba Water Treatment Works for testing, is expected to release the results by the end of this week.
Residents will be kept updated as and when there are new developments.
The City apologises for the inconvenience that may have been caused as a result of this unplanned interruption.