The City of Cape Town has issued a precautionary boil notice for water across parts of Cape Town as water in the distribution system from Faure water treatment plant over parts of the eastern, central and southern suburbs of the city is currently discoloured.
The advisory notice recommends residents in the affected areas boil their tap water prior to drinking it or using it for food preparation and cooking until further notice as a precautionary measure while the city investigates and does further testing, the City of Cape Town said in a statement on Friday.
The affected areas are primarily south of the N2 reaching from Strand in the East through Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Philippi to Plumstead and down into the Southern suburbs as far as about Muizenburg.
“The city is working on resolving the problem as soon as possible, and would like to apologise for any inconvenience. The situation is anticipated to normalise the water quality in this part of the supply network, over the next few days.”
As intensive water sampling and ongoing testing are being conducted, supply from the Faure water treatment plant has been halted, with the affected areas of the network supplied water from Blackheath Reservoir.
“The fault is owing to a process control fault at the Faure water treatment plant, which is the result of cumulative effects of recent phases of load-shedding, which caused limited operational hours of the sludge handling process,” the City notes.
This part of the treatment process cannot be augmented by generator capacity owing to high energy demand.
The city is working “with urgency” to reduce its reliance on State-owned power utility Eskom and end load-shedding in Cape Town, as the continued sporadic bouts of load-shedding have a detrimental effect on the City’s operations.
“The city is also continuing to build on its programme of ending load-shedding over time by focusing on energy diversification to enhance security of supply with the city’s own build projects, small-scale embedded generation programmes of buying excess power from qualifying customers, wheeling and independent power producer programmes,” it says.
The affected suburbs are:
Admirals Park
Airport
Anchorage Park,
Antilles/ Cayman Beach
Barnet Molokwana Corner
Beacon Valley
Bell Glen
Bongani
Brandwacht
Broadlands
Broadlands ark
Broadlands Village
Chris Hani Park
Colorado Park
Crossroads
Corydon Olive Estate
De Velde
Deaconville
Deepfreeze
Diep River
Dobson
Dreamworld
Driftsands
Eagle Park
Eastridge
Ekhuphumleni
Elfindale
Endlovini
Enkanini
Eyethu
Fairview Golf Estate
False Bay Coastal Park
Firgrove
Firgrove rural
Forest Village
George Park
Goedehoop
Good Hope
Gordon Heights
Gordon’s Bay
Gordon’s Bay Ext 12
Gordon’s Bay Village
Gordon’s Strand Estate
Graceland
Grassy Park
Greenways
Gugulethu
Hanover Park
Harare
Harbour Island
Harmony Village
Heartland, Beach Road Precinct
Heartland Historic Precinct
Heathfield
Helderberg Park
Highlands Village
Hyde Park
Ikwezi Park
Ilitha Park
Khaya
Khayalitsha
Kuyasa
Lakeside
Lansdowne
Lavender Hill
Lentegeur
Lotus River
Macassar
Macassar Beach
Macassar Village
Mall Interchange
Mandela Park
Manenberg
Mitchells Plain central business district
Monwabisi
Morgans Village
Mountainside
Mountainside Estate
Mountainside Ext 2
Muizenberg
Mxolosi Phetani
New Macassar
New Scheme
New Woodlands
Newfields
Nonqubela
Nyanga
Onverwacht Gordons Bay
Onverwacht The Strand
Ottery
Parkwood
Peaock Close
Pelikan Heights
Pelikan Park
Philippi
Philippi Park
Pinati Estate
Plumbstead
Portland
Protea Park Gordon’s Bay
Retreat
Riverside
Rocklands
Rondevlei Park
Sabata Dalindyebo Square
Sand Industria
Sandvlei
Sea Breeze Park
Seawinds
Sercor Park
Silvertown Khayelitsha
Sitari Country Estate
Smartie Town
Southfield
Southfork
St James
Steenberg
Strand
Strand Golf Club
Strandfontein
Tafelsig
Temporance Town
Thembokwezi
Twin Palms
Umrhabulo Triangle
Victoria Mxenge
Vrygrond
Weltevreden Valley
Westgage
Westridge Mitchells Plain
Wetton
Wildwood
Wolfgat Nature Reserve
Woodlands
Zeekoevlei