“Hammanskraal water safe to drink” – Authorities

The City of Tshwane, Department of Water and Sanitation, and Magalies Water, have sought to assure residents of Hammanskraal that the drinking water supplied to them, is safe to drink.This after residents last week complaint about the cloudy colour of the water, following a damage to the Klipdrift Water Treatment Plant, which supplies water to the area. turbidity in the drinking waterAuthorities said the damage at the water plant was caused by a power failure at the plant that occurred on 4 February. Following the damage, a new mini substation was installed on 8 February, and after electricity supply was restored, the plant was restarted immediately.“As a result of the downtime of the water treatment plant caused by the damage to the electricity substation, the reservoirs and reticulation system were empty and dry for a considerable amount of time. This downtown affected the areas of Mandela Village, Marokolong, Ramotse, Kekana Gardens (Steve Bikoville), Kudube Unit 9, Babelegi Industrial and Bridgeview informal settlement. When the system was restarted on 8 September 2024, it took time to recover and the City of Tswhane and Magalies Water had to conduct testing and flushing of the system to get air out of the supply pipelines,” read a joint statement from the authorities. The statement highlighted that the water quality in the system is monitored continuously.“On 11 February it was found that there was some turbidity in the water, which could have been caused by settled sediments as a result of the system having been dry for a period of time. All other parameters (apart from turbidity) complied with the SANS 241:2015 drinking water quality standard.Subsequent tests and further flushing of the distribution system were conducted on 13 February, and the results indicated that there was no non-compliance on any water quality parameters. The water in the system continues to be compliant to SANS 241:2015 and safe for human consumption,” explained the statement. Both the City of Tshwane and Magalies Water, supported by the department, have pledged to continue taking samples and assess the water quality in Hammanskraal.